As Above So Below
by Ren421
Summary: SasuNaru, Alt/SasuAlt/NaruNaru, Naruto is lost to another world through a freak jutsu, and when Sasuke finally tracks him down, he finds time has moved differently there, and years have passed for Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Untitled

**Title:** As Above So Below

**Fandom:** Naruto

**Rating:** NC-17

**Pairing:** SasuNaru, Alt/SasuAlt/NaruNaru

**Warnings:** Yaoi, Femme/Naruto, alternate Naruto, alternate Sasuke, alternate universe, some angst, I think.

**Note:** AU

**Summary:** Naruto is lost to another world through a freak jutsu, and when Sasuke finally tracks him down, he finds time has moved differently there, and years have passed for Naruto.

**AN: **Forgive me, I know I should be working on Summer Heat, but this particular plot bunny bit me hard, and my muse is being obstinate.

As Above So Below

Chapter 1

Sasuke dodged first right and then left, the enemy's katana whistling harmlessly to one side. Smirking, fingers flew, he drew in a deep breath, and then blew fire over the big scarred man that currently had the audacity to attack a party with Uchiha Sasuke in it. Screaming, the man fell to his knees, thrashed about a bit, then fell over. The flames soon flickered out, but the man did not move.

Drawing a wrist across his sweaty brow, Sasuke looked up to find the battle had almost wound down. Kakashi was far down at the end of the clearing, just finishing off his opponent. Sakura was beset by two rather aquiline characters. Naruto had just kicked his right into the upper branches of a great oak, and Sasuke paused a moment to admire the strong masculine lines of the blonde's body, leg still extended from his mighty kick.

Naruto always did favor the head on, brute force sort of attacks. Briskly trotting up, Sasuke smirked at his companion. "Hn. Always with so little finesse, Dobe."

With predictable emotions, Naruto scowled. "Always with so much arrogance, Teme. You want to see finesse? I'll show you finesse!"

Rolling his eyes, knowing Naruto was about to do something extremely stupid, Sasuke followed the blonde that suddenly darted the few feet that separated them from the beleaguered pink haired kunoichi.

Naruto shouted the words Sasuke absolutely despised.

"Sexy no Jutsu!" There was a flash and a puff, and an extremely buxom, very naked blonde girl, bewiskered as always, stood where the handsome ninja had been a second before. "Hey, fellows…" He taunted in a sexy voice.

One of Sakura's opponents turned, eyes widening to see such a voluptuous and bare woman, and his jaw dropped.

"You call that finesse, moron?" Sasuke bawled, furiously. God, he hated it when Naruto did that. With the slice of a kunai, the other man fell, never to rise again.

The first man recovered his wits, never took his eyes off the naked girl, and his face burned with embarrassed fury to have fallen for such a boneheaded trick. His hands moved rapidly, but Naruto simply stood there, and blew him a kiss.

"Naruto, look out!" Sakura screamed, kicked out and just clipping the enemy's elbow and his signs faltered for just a moment.

The ground shook as the enemy's jutsu misfired, and then ground shook, and a green light flashed just to the side of Naruto.

To Sasuke, everything suddenly began to crawl in slow motion. He would never make it to his stupid if precious blonde in time. He felt like he was struggling against tar, as the green flash grew and broadened, becoming a tall emerald oval a foot off the ground.

In the slowed tempo Sasuke's world had become, the raven haired male watched Naruto's head turn in shock to look at the green light beside him, long pig tails swinging as he did so.

Then time abruptly sped up. Wind rushed past them all, sucking leaves, dirt, and a single panicked bird into the green light. The light pulsed, and Naruto's body… bent… he, or rather she, began to elongate freakishly, and then was sucked right in with everything else.

The green light abruptly vanished, and the clearing fell into a stunned silence.

The man was staring stupefied at where the male nin turned female had once stood, now gone as if he/she had never existed. A second later, Sasuke's razor sharp kunai was at his neck.

"Bring him back," the Uchiha hissed, voice deadly cold.

Sasuke was leaning against the wall, hands shoved in his pockets, and stared at the man who'd turned his world upside over a year ago. His heart had become a cold lump of ice without the sunshine he needed to survive. Though Naruto had only been gone a year and a half now, it seemed to him as if more than a decade had passed since he'd last seen that bright smile, seen those flashing blue eyes, tasted that warm tanned skin.

"You should have let me do this a long time ago, when this first started," he hissed venomously at the Godaime.

Tsunade stared at him with weary bloodshot eyes. "You know how I feel about forbidden jutsu, Sasuke," she said softly.

But in truth, there was nothing left to try. In the last eighteen months, they'd interrogated the man, even tortured him. They'd tried mind control jutsu, everything they could. The problem was, the jutsu used that fateful day had been a fluke, the hand signs jarred at the last crucial second by Sakura. He couldn't even begin to tell them what he'd done. Or where Naruto had gone.

Sasuke was tired of waiting. He wanted his blonde back, and he wanted him now. Against his judgment, against his wishes, against the darkening hole his soul was once more becoming, he'd been forced to let the council and the Sannins to try everything else first. He would wait no longer. He'd told the Hokage just this morning that he was going to do things his way, whether she liked it or not.

And Tsunade had finally acceded. There was nothing left to try. If they wanted a chance to have Naruto back among them, provided it was even possible, that the blonde wasn't dead, they'd have to let Sasuke try the forbidden skills he'd learned under Orochimaru. But things would go her way, or no way.

Hence, the hapless enemy nin was strapped to a wooden table, practically brain dead from everything done to him. And this last thing would kill him. Sasuke had been blunt about that. What the Uchiha was about to do would suck the very life force from the man's body to power this particular jutsu. Not that Sasuke gave a shit about that. This man had cost him the only thing in life that he wanted, and if it took this man's life to bring Naruto back, well, so much the better.

Other than the man, the table, and the ninja, there was nothing else in the room save small cameras to record the even from all angles. As witnesses, and as damage control should things turn bad, several nin were stationed all along the curved walls of the research chamber. Neji and Hinata were there, byakuugan already activated. Kakashi and his sharingan as well. Tsunade and Jiraiya were there, as well as Shizune and Sakura, should medics be needed. The others were masked ANBU, remote and watchful.

Shizune checked the man's vitals one last time, frowning softly. She nodded to Tsunade signaling that nothing had changed in the vegetative state the enemy nin had been in for almost a year.

"Ready when you are, Uchiha," Tsunade finally said forbiddingly. "Just remember this… Whatever you learn, it will be thoroughly discussed before any action is taken. Do you understand?"

"I hear you," Sasuke said enigmatically.

Tsunade paused a moment longer, then nodded and stepped back into place with Shizune, falling into line against the wall with the others. Sasuke had been adamant about that.

Taking a moment to calm his mind, to prepare himself to once more use such a devastating forbidden skill, Sasuke took a deep breath, standing utterly still. Though he was silent and motionless, he was already drawing chakra, so quickly and fiercely, the others could feel gentle tugs on their own reserves. Having been warned about this, the others opened themselves, allowing their chakras to escape, to flow towards the Uchiha. At first nothing was visible, but then the man on the table began to quiver unceasingly, as if suffering from a gentle seizure. The chakra continued to flow towards and over the victim, until a black mist could be seen, spinning like a small whirlpool just over the table, the tiny cyclonic tail twisting downwards until it vanished into the hapless nin's chest, where his heart was. The darker the mist became and the faster it spun, the harder the man seized. Just when the others were beginning to feel the pain of the remorseless pull, Sasuke suddenly went through a long series of hand signs, his own sharingan activated, tomoes spinning wildly. Kakashi watched carefully. It wasn't ever day a forbidden jutsu of this caliber would come along.

The pull stabilized, and the nebulous surface of the whirlpool solidified, and took on a mirror like sheen. And like mushrooms spawning from the murk, small figures rose up, and the others saw the fight from so long ago. They saw Sakura become overwhelmed, saw Naruto shift into a woman, saw the man begin his own jutsu, interrupted by Sakura's kick. The miniaturized green portal opened and they saw Naruto get sucked in. Just as the small Sasuke leapt forward to capture the nin, the jutsu abruptly ended, leaving everyone rather dazed, and the man finally still, face and body frozen in mid paroxysm, quite dead.

Stunned, the others were panting softly, eyes round with awe. Suddenly, without warning, Sasuke stepped back, eyes still red and whirling, and moving so quickly they could barely follow, repeated the flawed signs the man had used.

"Sasuke-kun, no!" Sakura screamed, even as Tsunade lunged forward. But already the portal was opening once more, and before anyone could take any further action, Sasuke threw himself through, and the green light winked out of existence. The room was ominously quiet, filled with shocked onlookers, and a dead man. Sasuke Uchiha, like Naruto before him, was gone as if he'd never existed.

Sasuke found himself stumbling forward in a world seemingly filled with chaos, and his sharingan shut down so fast and hard his eyes ached fiercely. Blinking furiously, filled with vertigo to the point of nausea, he fell face first from the shock of his arrival, banging his arm against a hard surface, grimy bricks swimming in and out of focus. Completely drained, he slid slowly down the wall, amid the deafening sounds of horns and shouting and mechanical whirring and grinding.

Despite his dazed condition, he knew he was vulnerable, and struggled to collect himself. Swallowing back bitter bile, he finally rolled over and sat up, placing his back against the hard surface he'd just slipped down, his nausea made all the worse by the stench of smoke and oil and rotting vegetation and human waste.

Utterly spent, unable to draw on any chakra, he felt himself slipping away. Numbly, he took faint note of the fact he seemed to be in an alley, near the mouth of a street the likes of which he'd never seen before. Vague figures moved back and forth past, taking no notice of him. His head fell back as he began to slide even further onto the ground, half behind a massive metal container which was apparently the source of the terrible smells, and saw a sunset burnished sky far above the towering brick walls overhead, and then darkness swallowed him whole.

Half a city away, Naruto stood in his room, so inured to the sounds of the city of this industrialized and technological world that he barely noticed it, stared into his reflection in the mirror, the setting sun over his shoulder.

He'd been napping, and had dreamt such a vivid dream about Sasuke, from so long ago, and from so far away. He'd woken shaking, filled with distant memories and grief so strong, he'd almost wept. Now, staring at his cursed and hated reflection, he took note of the face that stared back at him from the highly polished mirror; saw the gently rounded, beautifully feminine face, filled with the lines of maturity, his youth, his masculinity so long gone. Having long ago given up hope of ever going home, such fits of pain and sorrow were now few and far between. But the dream had been so vivid, and Sasuke so… so much the Sasuke he knew and loved so fiercely, it was like the beginning all over again. He gave one last venomous look at the face he hated so much, and with a choked sob, slammed a fist into the mirror, shattering it into a million jangling shards.

There was a moment of silence, then a voice, so hatefully familiar once more, called out to him from the other side of the closed bedroom door.

"Naruto? Are you alright? Naruto? Open the door, honey, or I'm coming in!"

Unable to answer, to move, Naruto just stood there, staring dully down at the broken silvery pieces littering his vanity, tears in his eyes.

The door opened slowly, and a head poked in, one that once more filled Naruto with resentment, something he'd not felt in a very long time.

Shaggy blonde hair, bright blue eyes; the mirror image of what Naruto had once looked like, minus the whisker scars, as mature as his own now was. "Naruto, what happened?"

The man, his long ago twin, looked concerned. "Sweetheart, why are you crying?" He came in, and gently took Naruto into his arms, making the feminine version cry even harder. This is what he was supposed to look like; this is what he would still look like if he were home. Not this hellish, accursed place that had been his personal heaven and hell for so terribly long.

"Nathan…" Naruto moaned, feeling greater sorrow than ever before. He would never escape, never become himself again, never see his Sasuke again. Why did he have to have that so wonderful, but hell spawned dream? He hadn't dreamed of his Sasuke in so long. Why now?

"Mommy?" A forlorn voice finally shook Naruto from his tearful grief. "What's wrong, Mommy?" A small child, no more than ten, stared meekly at the couple from the doorway. Small, deliciously slim, with shaggy black hair and black eyes. Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat to look at his eldest son, the image of what a child between himself and his Sasuke would look like, had he not fallen into a hole in space and time.

He would not cry anymore.

Pasting a faded smile on his face, Naruto pulled from Nathan's arms, and hunched down, holding his arms out. "Mommy's fine, sweetheart," he said softly. "Come here and give me a hug, okay?"

The child gave a bright smile, and ran into his arms, snuggling into Naruto's generous bosom.

Once the child was assured that all was well, Naruto took him downstairs to the kitchen for a snack before bedtime, and Nathan swept up the broken glass frowning.

Another man, looking like an exact duplicate of a matured Sasuke stepped into the room. "What happened, Nathan?" He asked softly, eyes worried. Naruto hadn't had such a fit in some time.

"I don't know, Stefan," Nathan answered quietly, dumping the shards into the trash bin. "She didn't say. Please tell me Narue is already asleep and didn't hear anything. Sasuke did."

Stefan sighed. "I see. No, Narue's asleep, thankfully. I wonder what brought this on? She hasn't behaved like this in what… three or four years?"

"I have no idea. The medicine maybe? She's had such a bad cold. Stefan… you don't think… you don't think Naruto needs to see a shrink again, do you? She's been doing so well. I'd hate to think she's slipping back into her delusions again."

Nathan looked so miserable that Stefan was shaken, as well as afraid of all this himself. Naruto had been such an integral part of their lives for so long, that it scared them. Naruto was their wife, their lover, the mother of their children. She couldn't be getting sick, not again. Stefan held his husband tightly, sinking slim fingers in wild blonde hair so like Naruto's.

"I don't want her to have to see a psychiatrist again," Nathan mumbled against Stefan's shirtfront. "She was so unhappy then, and looked at us like we were betraying her. I don't want to go through that again."

"No more shrinks," Stefan said firmly, in agreement. Those few years were terrible. Naruto had been so hurt by them then. "We will deal with this on our own. Naruto is ours. We will heal her again."


	2. Chapter 2

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 2

When Sasuke woke, it was dark, and thankfully the noise was much reduced, and he'd grown so used to the horrific scent around and now on him, he barely noticed it. What he did notice, to his furious dismay, was that at some point after he passed out, someone had stolen his weapons kit, and even his sandals. Who the fuck stole sandals?

After taking a closer assessment of his person, he found nothing else had been stolen. His wallet was still in his back pocket. Stupid thieves… take the shoes but leave the money. Tch. Guess they didn't dare roll him over to get it.

Wiping a greasy hand over his chilly brow, he wished he had the byakuugan. His sharingan was useless at the moment. But he had other tricks. He drew on his chakra, to sense what lay unseen around him, to find Naruto's unique signature that would finally lead him to his dobe, and… and…

And nothing… It was if he was still utterly drained. There was not even a wisp of chakra to draw on. Unnerved, he slowly got to his feet, carefully placing them where they wouldn't get cut on broken glass, rusty metal, and bits of stone. Taking a deep breath, he tried again.

Again, nothing.

It didn't make sense. If he was so drained of chakra, he should still be unconscious. He should be in the hospital. He'd been out almost all night; he could tell by the faint glow to the east. He should have recovered most if not all of his chakra by now. Since he hadn't, something was obviously wrong with him. Yet he felt fine, albeit it dirty beyond belief. He felt fine, but was powerless.

Numb from shock, he made his way out of the stinking alley. To the east were streaks of rose and gold, the rising sun. Tilting his head back, he looked at the remaining stars over head, those still visible this time of morning, and realized with clinical detachment that they were almost identical to the stars he would see this time of day over Konoha. The only difference were that there were several more. Other stars that winked brightly, and as he watched, moved much quicker than the others. Some of them much more quickly than the others. It was with renewed shock he realized some of them weren't stars at all, but some sort of heavenly bodies that crawled across the sky with horrendous speeds. In fact, as he watched, one of them began to split into two, and as it soared over the streets now displayed before him, he saw the rising sun's rays gleam across a belly of metal, the muted growling noise growing to a noisy roar, leaving behind a trail of pink and yellow tinted smoke.

What the hell?

As soon as it vanished behind the buildings to the north, Sasuke snapped his hanging jaw shut, and continued on.

This was obviously a city; he'd seen enough to know, even though the materials used were quite different from which he was accustomed to seeing; instead of wood and rustic metal, this place was built from a foundation of brick and concrete and rose into towering spires of metal and glass, winking in the growing sunlight.

The silent streets soon became crowded with huge machines of metal, screeching here and there, honking and filled with sometimes shouting people. It was so very alien to everything Sasuke had ever seen. At first he'd been basically alone in the rising light, but very soon the place became filled with people dressed rather strangely, all rushing here and there. They gave him glances, some filled with disgust, others with pity, and to his surprise, some fat woman halted, clucked in sympathy, and shoved a wrinkled piece of paper into his filthy hand.

Looking down at it, he saw a 10 peeking up at him from a bent corner. Smoothing it out, he realized it was some form of money. He'd seen all sorts of of paper money before, but this was unlike any he'd seen before. It brought home with startling clarity exactly far he'd come from all he'd ever known.

He clenched his fist, his heart squeezing painfully. Naruto had passed through here months and months ago. He had to have been as confused and bewildered as Sasuke. Hell, more so… it was _Naruto. _How had the blonde fared in this alien landscape?

_Naruto… where are you?_

It had been almost five weeks since Sasuke sent himself to this paradoxically dreadful yet fascinating place. Five weeks of fruitless searches and growing unease. Well, at least he had the way of it now, even if his chakra was utterly gone. When he walked the city streets, he was no longer mistaken for a bum. Gone was his Konohan garb. He looked as casual and appropriate of any youth that stalked the streets at lunchtime. The only concession he kept was his leaf headband, which he wore around his neck like a thick necklace. He couldn't bear to let it go. Thankfully, there was so much diversity in this foreign place that he didn't stand out too much.

With a sigh, he went to the pizzeria and deli where he now worked. Money was something he could understand, no matter how differently it looked. And he was smart, saavy and had taken a week to acclimatize himself to this new world. A boy, younger than himself on a curious pair of boots with a row of tiny wheels on them had led him to the library, and to computers, where everything in this place had suddenly opened up to him. Using his natural, if rather rusty charm, and a bright smile, he'd schmoozed the young librarian into showing him exactly how to use the little boxes with the bright pictures in them.

And so armed, Sasuke got himself the job necessary to fund his search, and feed his growling gut. And this job was perfect for him. Not only did it teach him the complete layout of the city, it took him all over it everyday. Surely, somewhere, Naruto was walking these same streets, and their paths would cross. Surely.

But he was rather disheartened. What if Naruto had left this city, had moved on in his search to find a way home? It didn't bear thinking about. Finding a single person, one that didn't belong here, in this mass of humanity, was like finding a needle in a haystack; if Naruto had left, it could be another year and half before he found his lost lover. Another year and a half… or more.

Fighting off another wave of despair, he entered into the small establishment, only to find controlled chaos.

"No deliveries today, Uchiha," he was told by his harried boss. "We got a last minute order for five dozen pizzas and twelve gross of calzones to be delivered to the annual Madara barbeque. Humph. Never wanted these things before. Why now? And of course it had to be on the very day."

Sasuke barely heard his complaining superior, he was frozen to the spot by one word.

_Madara._

In this alien city, he'd very seldom come across any names that were familiar to him, and today, he had his long dead ancestor's slapped across his face. In the ensuing hour and a half that he was rushed into food production, then into some sort of fancy uniform, he couldn't help but feel his spirits rise. Even when said boss tried to force him to forgo his headband, which he simply pocketed planning to don it as soon as he left to go to the park where the barbeque was being held, didn't dampen his spirits.

Sasuke was not a religious or superstitious man; but he couldn't help but feel this was a good omen. At last.

_Naruto, I'm getting closer. _

Stefan and Nathan stood with a much older woman, long hair blond and blowing loose over her shoulders, burgundy eyes watching Naruto with his two children smiling as he bought them ice cream cones. The day was bright and sunny, and they were surrounded by laughing merrymakers.

"So what do you think, Aunt Suzie?" Nathan asked anxiously. Since the day Naruto broke the mirror, she'd awakened from dreams that made her cry and withdraw into herself once more. For her husband's and children's sakes, she was making an effort to act normally, but they were not deceived.

They could no longer blame the cold medicine their wife had been taking that day five weeks ago. She had long recovered from it, and still the dreams kept coming. Hence, at the yearly picnic Stefan's family business put on, it was a perfect time to meet with his 'aunt and uncle', who knew Naruto almost as well as they did, and get their take on it.

Thus Nathan's adoptive family were at hand to observe her actions. Neither man wanted to bring professionals into their lives again. Yes, Suzanne was a doctor, and her husband Jason was a psychologist, but they were family; hopefully Naruto would accept help from them without giving her husbands those wounded and betrayed looks she'd given them before when they forced her to get help for her 'otherworld delusions'.

They had almost lost her then; only the fact she was pregnant with Nathan's daughter had kept her with them. They'd never risk that again. They loved her too much to let her slip away from them.

Suzanne regarded the 'woman' in question. Naruto was leaning over, smoothing her daughter's wild blond hair, blue eyes smiling into blue. She was wearing an ultra chic dress, smart heels on her feet, her wild blonde hair, cut short as Nathan's own, as wild as Narue's wind tossed curls. Every inch the wife of two affluent businessmen. The only thing out of place was the metal plate bolted to black cloth she wore around her waist. According to Stefan, she'd taken to wearing it again, since the first dream weeks ago. Suzanne had thought the accursed thing long gone.

"Every time I see her, I can't help but be stunned by the fact she could be your twin sister, Nathan," Suzanne said slowly, shaking her head.

When Naruto had come into their lives, she'd been a rather startling addition to Nathan's unorthodox family. Yes, homosexual relationships were more common now than ever before, but Suzanne had not expected it to crop up in her family. But she loved Nathan with every fiber of her being. If the dark and rather cynical Stefan made him happy, who was she to say nay? Naruto was the only child of her best friend's daughter. The only child of her husband's best friend's son. When they had both been killed so tragically, it had broken both her and Jason's hearts; of course, they'd taken the boy in and raised him as their own.

Then Naruto had shown up on their horizon, fifteen years ago. The lost and bewildered young girl had been a hop out of ken. She looked so much like a feminine version of Nathan that they'd been shocked. But there was no way there could be any relation between them. Their friends had been immigrants from Sweden, come to America because they'd both been orphaned in the war. No relatives at all. That was when they'd met the couple. Minato and Kushina had been a little old when they'd discovered they were going to be parents, but they had been overjoyed. They'd long ago given up hope of having children. But Kushina had died from complications a few days after Nathan's birth, leaving Minato a shocked shell of himself. He'd been killed in a car accident less than a month later, very drunk, and unable to deal with the loss of his wife, his childhood sweetheart, his lifetime companion.

So how could this girl show up, looking exactly like Nathan, save she was female to his male, and had six curious whisker marks adorning her face. Both Nathan and Stefan had taken her in, unable to help themselves. There was just something about her. Then, five years later, she'd shyly offered to be a surrogate mother for Stefan. He and his lover were so in love, and so unable to have children. Surely she could do this for them, since they'd taken her in, despite all her wild, farfetched tales of another world and strange powers.

Somehow, it had developed into a full blown sexual relationship between the three of them. Once more, Suzanne was struck by the oddity of her 'son' bedding his biological duplicate if gender opposite. At first, Nathan had loved her like a sister, but that had soon changed. Now, she slept with both men, every night.

But it was in her first pregnancy, with the boy she'd insisted be named Sasuke, that her personality became rather frantic. With every passing week of gestation, desperation had filled her. She had to go home! She had to find her own lover! Her own homosexual lover. Homosexual, not lesbian. Poor woman, she'd been convinced she had once been a man. But Suzanne had completely examined her, both when she'd arrived in their lives, and when she'd become pregnant with Stefan's child, and knew a knife or a laser had never touched that beautiful and flawless body. She was no transsexual. She was a woman, born and bred. Suzanne could tell. She was a doctor, for christssake!

Once Sasuke had been born, Naruto had lapsed into a long depression. Deeming it postnatal, they'd treated her accordingly, and she'd slowly revived. But five years later, when she'd discovered she was pregnant again, unexpectedly, for neither Nathan or Stefan wanted a repeat of before, she began to get desperate again. She began to roam the city, pregnant to the nines, and they'd have to chase her down, and bring her tearfully home.

She kept crying out for Sasuke, but her own son didn't seem to soothe her. By the time Nathan's blond haired, blue eyed daughter had been born, Naruto had been seeing a shrink for two months. After that, she closed herself off from both her lovers and her children. She watched them with hunted and betrayed eyes, and wept almost continuously, calling for Sasuke, but then pushing the boy gently away every time they brought him to her. She wanted 'her' Sasuke.

Finally, unable to stand the armed camp their household had become, the men had dismissed the psychiatrists, and simply got as close to her as she would allow. Finally, the depression passed, and over a year after Narue's advent, she seemed as normal as she ever had. She never mentioned 'her' Sasuke, or this strange world and powers again. She was quiet, reserved, distant.

But she'd finally become once more the bright and glowing light in their life again, as if none of this ugliness had ever happened. She'd been the Naruto they both loved so much.

And now… the dreams, the tears, the damned 'headband' again.

Well, they'd loved it out of her once, they would do it again.

When Nathan stubbornly refused to respond to her comments of Naruto's sisterish qualities, as he always did, she sighed again.

"Well, the desperation she exhibited during her pregnancies is absent. At least you don't have to worry about getting her pregnant again."

Both men had vasectomies after Narue's birth. They didn't ever want to see their Naruto in such desperate straits again. She'd given them both a child each, it was enough. Especially in the light that they'd never expected to have any in the first place. Naruto had given them such precious gifts, and they wouldn't be greedy. They both had the surgery done, rather than ask it of her.

"We love her so much, Aunt Suzanne. I don't know what I'll do if she gets 'sick' again." Nathan fretted in a choked voice.

Stefan, quiet as ever, simply tightened his grip on the other man's hand, silent agreement to everything said.

To Stefan, she was a bewitching enchantment. The dark haired man hadn't really been gay, or bisexual like Nathan. He'd never had a love interest before the bright haired boy had crashed into his life when he'd been twelve. Literally crashed into his life, from the branches of a tree overhead. He'd taken one look at the blonde boy and had been smitten. Of course, he hadn't realized it at the time.

The two had become inseparable, insulting each other as often as they complimented. As they grew up, Stefan never looked at a girl. By the time he was fifteen, he realized with a shock that he lusted after his blonde friend.

Stefan had been groomed to take over Madara Enterprises since he was eight, when his older brother, Ethan, had committed suicide. The older boy, screaming that he wouldn't listen to the voices in his head, he wouldn't kill his family, had shot himself in his bedroom one night. Since that day, Stefan knew he would inherit, and had behaved accordingly. In every manner, save one.

He wanted Nathan. And he would have him. And this string of male and female lovers his friend had been going through, would end. Each one had cut him to the bone. In a fit of rage, finding Nathan crying because his latest 'love' had left him, he practically assaulted the blonde. Nathan had been shocked. He'd never expected anything like this from his dark and reserved friend. He'd often teased the raven for being asexual. The sex was rather violent, but Nathan had come harder than ever before, screaming his friend's name. Afterwards, Stefan calmly told Nathan that if he ever took another lover, Stefan would kill the hapless person. Nathan was his. Forever. Then he'd taken his new lover again, longer, harder, deeper, and Nathan was lost. Not that such drastic measures had been necessary; he'd been in love with his dark haired friend since the day he fell on the older boy's head from the tree. But Stefan had never once evinced any sort of sexual interest in male or female. Disheartened, Nathan had tried to find satisfaction in others, but they always failed, because Nathan couldn't love them. He'd already given his heart to his friend.

Leaving Nathan passed out in exhaustion in his bed, Stefan had showered, dressed, and went downstairs to tell his father his choice for a mate.

Oh, how Phillip had raged. They'd argued, fought, and left little emotional bombs everywhere for each other. The Madara household had become a battleground. That day Nathan was hauled naked from the bed, shoved into his clothes by an enraged father, and tossed out on his kiester. Stefan was not allowed to see him again. Stefan promptly left the manor, chased his stricken friend down, took him to Nathan's house, and made love to him again. He told his lover nothing had changed, nothing ever would. Nathan was his. Stefan continued to see him, and war continued to rage in the wealthy Madara home, until Phillip, having enough of his son's insubordination, had threatened to disinherit the boy. Stefan had stared at him in disdain, went upstairs, packed a bag, and moved out. Convinced his son would come slinking home once he no longer had all the material things he'd been raised with, Phillip allowed this.

A year later, he was astonished to find that Stefan and Naruto now had a rather nice apartment in a decent side of town, and that Stefan was doing well with a lucrative website he'd designed himself and ran with Nathan. Both boys were doing well, and were very much in love, and Phillip realized his son didn't need him nearly as much as he needed his son. Begrudgingly, he arrived on day on their doorstep, with Stefan's tearful mother, bearing what was more appropriate to wedding gifts than peace makers. He told his son in a strained voice that Stefan could sleep with whomever he wanted. Phillip formally welcomed Nathan into the family, even going to far as to grit his teeth and kiss the blonde on both cheeks. Shocked, both boys stared at him. The Madaras stayed a couple of hours, then departed, leaving a copy of Phillip's latest will, showing Stefan as his heir, with Nathan as a beneficiary as well, as well as full restitution papers.

Phillip was proud, even as he was annoyed. Stefan was truly his son. Sixteen, and already well on his way to getting into Fortune 500. However unwanted Nathan's relationship was with his son, Stefan was obviously thriving, and Phillip had never seen the boy happier. He could live with this. So both boys suddenly found themselves in possession of a private tutor, Stefan went in to work in his father's offices, Nathan took over the website, and life went on.

Then, two years later, they both met Naruto… and both fell hard. Naruto was everything Nathan was, and female. When she offered to surrogate for them, they were both over the moon. Then they'd both shocked the beautiful girl that had come to mean so much to them both. Naruto had thought they would use a clinic, and artificial insemination. But Nathan and Stefan had talked long and hard about it. They wanted Naruto in their lives, permanently. She fed something, in both their souls. And neither of them wanted a child conceived in such sterility as a lab, in the ruthlessness of syringes and such.

So Nathan lured Naruto into their bedroom from her own, and Nathan gently held her as Stefan made love to her. The sight of both those beloved, almost identical faces, below his, made it a moving, exceptionally pleasurable event. And when Naruto came, as she did several times that night, each time she cried out the word 'Sasuke', and wept. But she'd stayed with them that night, and every other once since then. Once they knew she'd conceived, then Nathan seduced her. They turned Naruto's old room into a nursery. Naruto finally stopped her wild ranging, which neither really understood, but allowed to happen since she seemed to need this unnamed search so much. In a little and not quite legal ceremony, witnessed by only the Madara and Arashi families, they both married her. Then she began to fall apart. Both boys loved her so much, they couldn't bear her endless pain, and did what they thought was right. And it had ended so badly. But their love finally got all of them through it. And their love would get them through this resurgence of Naruto's 'illness'. One way or another, they would abide. All five of them.


	3. Chapter 3

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 3

Sasuke was hard at work at the Madara barbeque, but kept both eyes peeled sharply. Thus far, he'd seen nothing to incur his curiosity, but he'd only been here a couple of hours. Damn, but there were a lot of people here. And how Sasuke hated crowds of this sort. All the laughter, the quarrelling couples, the whining children with sticky hands and dirty faces. However they annoyed him, though, he refused to let them get to him. He had to pay attention, to see what other faces he recognized. In the five weeks he'd been here, he'd seen two people that had made his hair stand on end.

Shikamaru hadn't been Shikamaru; he'd been Marcus, and he'd been into painting and getting high on street corners. And Kakashi had been a security officer at the bank Sasuke used. He didn't read porn, but he had a horrendously filthy sense of humor, and didn't care who he shared it with. He was also quite fat, something that had shocked Sasuke. However, it drove home to the raven that this world must lay very close to his own, to have so many familiar faces in it.

Would he find this world's version of Naruto? Would he find his own blonde? He had to, he just had to.

There was a sudden rush on the pizza stand, and for a long while, Sasuke was too busy to take note of much. However, in the midst of his working frenzy, he did hear, with one ear at first, a little boy's voice.

"Uncle Jason, why does that man have mama's headband? And why does he look like Papa?"

The boy didn't actually use the word headband, he used an archaic term, to this society anyway, of hitai-ate. And as such, it caught Sasuke's attention, like nothing else.

"Hmmm?" Someone responded to the boy idly. "Did you say something, Sauce?" Though normally, Sasuke was indignant to be called such, for he was ten years old now and far too old for such baby names, he was too curious about what was before him to be offended.

Sasuke's eyes dilated, filled with the vision of what appeared to be himself in his young childhood. The pair of them stared unblinkingly at each other. Out of the corner of his eye, the elder Sasuke took note of a very tall, very broad man holding the little boy's hand. Finally dragging his eyes away from the boy and to the man, his throat became dry.

"Jiraiya…" He couldn't help himself. He knew the man wouldn't go by the same name, but it was undeniably this world's version of the Jiraiya that had trained Naruto over the years. Though his hair was neatly tied back, there were no facial tattoos, and he was dressed conservatively, Sasuke would know him a mile away.

When the boy didn't respond, Jason looked down, and then up to where the little boy was staring so fixedly. And drew in a loud gasp.

This boy before him now, at the edge between adolescence and adulthood, was the exact spitting image of Stefan Madara, even down to the stubborn cowlick at the back of the head, forcing the hair up like a cockatoo's crest. Wide eyes took in all this, then dropped to the boy's throat, where yet another of those horrible head bands, or 'hitai-ates' as Naruto called them, rested.

"Boy… who are you, and where did you get that?" With a rather rude gesture, Jason pointed at the headband.

"You've seen this before, haven't you?" Sasuke asked, uncharacteristically eager and ignoring the older man's question.

"Maybe I have, and maybe I haven't. Who are you?" Jiraiya's double asked, his voice dropping and growing cold.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke shot forth, too filled with anticipation to take offense. This man had seen this particular type of hitai-ate before, that much was obvious. And the sight of it disturbed him. He had to have seen Naruto!

All the spit dried up in Jason's mouth, as the ramifications of this little encounter could mean. Of course, it couldn't possibly be Naruto's 'Sasuke', he was far too young. But the boy did have the exact same headband that was so precious to the blond woman now in their lives, and could possibly be the son of said 'Sasuke'. He swallowed dryly, and wished his wife were with him. She would know what to do. This boy stood to really test the bonds of Naruto's psyche, and it chilled him to the bone.

That the older man was quite freaked out right now, Sasuke felt hope surge in his breast. Dropping the half tossed dough in his once frozen hands, he dusted his hands off on his pants, and dug into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Thankfully, he'd kept all the pictures of Naruto there, and not in his long gone weapons kit.

"Listen, Jiraiya… er… Mister, have you seen this boy?" With shaking hands, Sasuke flipped the side of the wallet open, and out spilled a multitude of worn and dog eared photographs. All portraying a blonde haired, blue eyed boy. "He's my… friend, his name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I've been looking for him for over a year and a half."

Jason grabbed the pictures even more rudely than he'd pointed before, feeling strangely ill. He looked at each and ever one. Though some had others in them, most of them were of a so familiar blonde, even down to the whisker marks on the cheeks. The 'boy', obviously a very young Naruto, wore a glaringly orange jumpsuit in almost every one of them. A very familiar jumpsuit. Though Naruto could no longer wear it, she kept the now faded and quite ragged outfit, like the headband.

"Where did you get these?" Jason asked in a strangled voice. Somehow, this boy, who he was beginning to believe ever more strongly was the son of Naruto's Sasuke Uchiha, had coveted pictures of Naruto as a youngster. It could be no one else. And true, the Naruto child looked increasingly masculine in the series of pictures, why did the lad keep calling Naruto a boy? Naruto was very much a woman, down to her delicate toes. Could this boy have been an unknowing part of a conspiracy to make Naruto believe she'd been born a boy? Was that why the sweet and normally sane blonde had such wild stories of her youth?

He abruptly snapped all the pictures into one pile. "Listen… Sasuke… I would like to take a couple of these pictures and show them to someone. Don't go anywhere, okay? I don't know any 'boy' Naruto, but these pictures may be an important piece to the puzzle of someone very dear to my heart."

Sasuke was silent, watching the man closely. He didn't miss the stress on the word boy, and wondered what it meant. However, he wasn't about to let a single picture of Naruto, all he had left of his lover now, out of his hands. Besides, this man knew more than he was letting on, and Sasuke absolutely could not let him walk away, for any reason. Not without him.

"No, you can't," He said in a cool voice. "If anyone's going to show them, I will."

"Dammit boy," Jason growled, frustrated. Right now, Stefan and Nathan were with Naruto, and there was no way in hell Jason was going to let this strange boy anywhere near Naruto, for fear of what his tales and face could do to the already fragile woman. Not without the three men, and Suzanne, talking to him first.

"Daddy!" Little Sasuke suddenly squeaked, and both Sasuke and Jason jumped. They'd almost completely forgotten about him. The boy darted away, and laughingly threw himself into the arms of a rather short blonde man.

Sasuke couldn't breathe. He was going to faint. He was going to fall flat on his face. "N… Naruto…" He stammered, his vaunted Uchiha pride nonexistent at the moment.

But no, it couldn't be his Naruto. This man was too old, and he didn't have any whiskers. Sasuke felt the terrible urge to burst into tears. This is what his Naruto would look like when he grew older, minus, of course, Naruto's distinctive markings. Jesus God… Naruto was going to get even more stunning, if this man was any indication. Sasuke's knees grew weak, and his eyes grew moist. _Naruto!_

The smiling blonde, now holding the boy on his shoulder, swung up to them, seeing only his uncle at the moment. "Hey, Uncle Jason, what's taking so long? We're hungry and…" His eyes flicked towards Sasuke, and he froze solid.

There was a long silence, as neither of the men heard the endless raucous noise about them, everything fading into muted noiselessness, broken only by racing heartbeats.

Nathan's eyes dropped to the headband around Sasuke's neck, and he licked suddenly dry lips. "Who…"

"He says his name is Sasuke Uchiha," Jason said softly.

"Hey, that's my name," the little boy on Nathan's shoulder suddenly piped up, brow furrowing. "Sasuke Uchiha Madara. How funny!" And he smirked in such a familiar way, Sasuke thought once more he might faint.

Then Jason thrust the pictures under Nathan's nose. The blonde suddenly set little Sasuke down, and took the pictures.

"It's… Naruto… as a child…" he said faintly. Then beautiful and familiar blue eyes sharpened and grew cold as ice. "Where did you get these?"

"They're mine," Sasuke bit out, getting tired of these veiled innuendos that he had no right to them. "They are of my best friend in the world. Naruto Uzumaki. You know where his is, don't deny it. I heard you say his name."

"'His' name?" Nathan said, looking suddenly bewildered. "But Naruto's my wife. She's certainly no boy and…" Suddenly Nathan trailed off.

Utter silence, despite the festive noises still flowing around them.

"She wasn't lying, she's not delusional. She… she…" Nathan breathed softly. And suddenly, he realized what was happening. "No. Go away, boy. She's ours. Go away!" And holding the pictures tightly, he swept his son into his arms, and ran away.

"Nathan!" Jason bawled. "Don't be ridiculous!" He gave a quick look at Sasuke, who was still frozen into place by Nathan's claim that Naruto was his wife. He thrust a business card into the boy's hand. "Call me. Tonight." And he too vanished into the throng.

Sasuke immediately came out of his daze, and vaulted over the counter, ignoring his boss's scream to come back. The damn older blonde clone took all his pictures! And he knew where Naruto was!

The sun had long set, the crowds had thinned to sparse groups, and Sasuke knew he'd lost them irrevocably. He leaned against a board fence, drawing shaky breaths as tears leaked down his cheeks. He'd lost the last things he had of Naruto. He slowly reached into his pocket and took out the card Jason had given him.

Jason Sannin… figures. Hm. A psychiatrist. Interesting. Without a second lost, he turned and headed straight towards the first payphone he could find.

Stefan was sitting on a bench with Naruto, bouncing Narue lightly on his lap, the little girl dissolving into giggles. Suddenly, Nathan dashed up, face white as chalk, holding onto a squirming protesting little Sasuke.

Alarmed, Stefan stood up, handing Narue to Naruto. "What's wrong, Koi?" It was a term he'd learned from Naruto years ago, and absolutely loved it, using it on both Naruto and Nathan whenever he felt like it.

"We have to go. Right now. We have to leave this place. Now, Stefan!" He shoved the raven's son into Stefan's arms, snatched up Narue, and pulled Naruto to her feet.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, blue eyes wide. Seldom did Nathan ever get so fearfully frantic. "What's wrong?"

"We're going home, right now," Nathan said, obviously distraught. He towed Naruto behind him, and Stefan followed with his son, frowning thunderously.

"What happened?" Naruto asked, bewildered. "We never ate and…"

"Nathaniel Arashi, stop right there." Stefan's voice was forbidding.

Behind Naruto's back, Nathan shoved the pictures into his husband's hand, eyes pleading. "I just don't feel good. I want to go home."

While Naruto was distracted by worry for her younger blonde husband, Stefan snuck a peek at what Nathan had shoved into his hands, and felt a chill crawl over his body. "Okay, Koi, we can go home."

"But I don't wanna go home," Narue wailed from Nathan's shoulder. "I want pizza! You promised us pizza! Mommy!"

Little Sasuke stayed silent, curious black eyes watching all three of his parents.

"Shhh.." Naruto soothed her daughter softly. She stopped stroking Nathan's face to take the little girl back. "We'll order some from home, darling. Come on, Daddy doesn't feel good. Let's get him home and into bed, hmmm?"

The ride home was made with Naruto leading the children in some silly song, making them smile and giggle. Nathan ordered pizza to be delivered as they went, his voice shaky. Stefan drove, catching Nathan's anguished eyes occasionally.

As soon as they got home, Naruto took the kids, and trundled them off to bathe while they waited for the pizza to arrive.

"Spill it," Stefan said softly as soon as they were alone.

In a trembling voice, Nathan told him what he knew, as the older dark haired man stared down once more at the pictures he'd been given. He was finally able to look at them thoroughly.

"This is Naruto as a girl, alright. There's no doubt about that. But I never posed for these pictures, and all of them are too old for Sasuke." Stefan said slowly.

"Don't you understand?" Nathan hissed, trying to keep his voice low. "It's him. It's 'that' Sasuke. He's real! He's come to take Naruto away from us! We can't let that happen!

"Slow down, Koi. Relax. No one's going to take her away from us. Now, take a deep breath, and tell me, word for word, what 'Sasuke' said."

Nathan did so, slowly, with some gentle guidance from his husband. Then Stefan was silent a long moment as he digested what he'd learned. Then he called Jason's cell phone, and got that man's take on what had happened.

Naruto and the kids came downstairs at this point, and the men had to keep silent, and tried to act nonchalant. Stefan, of course, managed it with relative ease, but Nathan was so nervous, so jumpy, and so affectionate with Naruto, that she began to get suspicious.

"You're not sick at all, are you," she accused gently as soon as Nathan finally stopped kissing her for a second. "You just want to get into my pants."

"You know it, babe," Nathan said recklessly, sliding his hand under her skirt and into her panties.

Naruto gasped, then giggled. "Koi… the kids are watching…"

Sasuke and Narue were giggling, eyes dancing. Their daddy's randy and uninhibited actions were not at all unusual, to both Naruto's and Stefan's chagrin. But both children found it comforting to see the obvious love and passion between all three of their parents.

The doorbell rang. Stefan touched Nathan's shoulder. "Go get the food, loverboy. Mama will still be here later for all your lascivious attention."

Laughing, Nathan did so, bring trailed eagerly by two very hungry, pizza deprived children.

As soon as they were out of sight, Stefan startled Naruto by seizing her into his arms, and kissing her as desperately as Nathan had.

"Why… why... Stefan…" She half gasped, half moaned, melting into his arms and kiss as she had her blonde husband's. Though Stefan was no less passionate with her than Nathan was, he was usually more reserved about it, saving his wanton behavior for behind closed doors.

"You're ours," he told his beautiful wife in a fierce whisper as soon as their clinging lips parted moistly. "Ours. And no one will take you away from us." He had time for one last hard kiss, befuddling Naruto further, before Nathan danced into the room with two children, each holding a pizza box triumphantly.

"Let's dig in!" Nathan caroled, pausing to give Stefan a naughty wink. Swollen lips were hard to miss. He could barely wait until the kids were tucked into bed and he could take his wife and husband to their own bed. God, all three of them were going to get it tonight, believe it!


	4. Chapter 4

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 4

The late afternoon and early evening crawled too slowly for Nathan's peace of mind. Both Naruto and Stefan found themselves frequently the victims of run by molestations. Nathan was completely unnerved by the day's turn of events, and sought to alleviate his fears by jumping his spouses whenever possible. Every time Naruto turned around, Nathan had her in his arms, kissing her hungrily, putting his hands in highly inappropriate places when children were nearby. This always made Naruto blush fiercely, Narue giggle, and Sasuke roll his young eyes. Daddy was such a horn dog! Once, about an hour before bed, Sasuke sauntered by his parent's bedroom, and rashly looked in to discover that Nathan had pinned Stefan to the thick carpet, had his pants open, and one tanned hand deep in Stefan's boxers, ravaging said dark haired father's mouth with his own.

Enough was enough. Sasuke didn't know what was wrong with his blonde father, who was always ready to play with his wife and husband, whomever might be nearby, but he did suspect that strange young man at the barbeque to be the source of his father's endless trysts today. Still, as much as it soothed Sasuke's turbulent soul to see such devotion and passion after all these years, considering that more than three fourths of his school friends came from divorced homes, Daddy was taking things a bit far today.

"Daddy!" He bawled angrily. "Get off Papa! Can't you _please _wait until we go to bed? For god's sake! Mama! Make Daddy leave Papa alone!"

No sooner had the words left Sasuke's mouth, he realized that asking Mama to help was like putting oil on a fire. Daddy was ten times more affectionate with Mama today then normal as well. Sighing gruffly, he walked away, knowing that as soon as Mama arrived, the door to the bedroom room would slam and all sorts of embarrassing noises would come out. It was bad enough at night. Someone was always having sex in their household. With three highly sexed parents, they'd already gone through three beds that Sasuke knew of. And Papa had finally given up, and stopped calling drywall and painting companies to repair the wall behind their headboard; he'd simply moved the huge four poster bed into the middle of the room. Less collateral damage that way, Sasuke figured.

He went to the back patio and breathed in the heavy scent of honeysuckle that climbed relentlessly over the back wall, and tried to ignore the muffled sounds coming from deep inside the house. Mama had squealed when she'd arrived to discover why Sasuke had been so angry, and the door had slammed. Sasuke had heard it from the patio not ten minutes before. He just knew that Daddy and drug her in to play with him and Papa. He sighed again, and wondered if he would grow up to be so sexually impatient. He hoped not, since he was actually Stefan's son, and not Nathan's. Not that he regarded either man as more his father. He was just biologically related to his dark haired father, and not to his blonde haired father. But both men were, respectively, Papa and Daddy. He went as readily to one as the other when he had a boo boo that needed healing, though Mama's kisses were the best when it came to ouchies. And he'd run to his Daddy more often when he was scared than to his Papa. Daddy was far more easy going when it came to fears of the unknown and confessions of wrong doing. Always go to Daddy first. Daddy was his greatest shield against Papa's wrath and/or disappointment, with Mama a very close second.

The sky was shot with purple and gold and rose, and Sasuke stared at it dreamily; having inherited a great love of dreams and beauty from his mother, Naruto. A moment later, Narue came dancing out with a lollipop, made of juice and honey, instead of tons of sugar. Though all three of the blondes in Sasuke's family lived and died for sugar, Stefan would frown at the sheer amount they consumed. But Narue's cavity last year was the final straw. He'd tried several things before finally finding a recipe for candy and sweets that didn't contain a bit of sugar. It had been very odd, seeing his Papa decked out in one of Mama's bright orange aprons, brow wrinkled in concentration, as he mixed things in big bowls. Daddy still teased Papa about that apron.

Watching his little sister now, contentedly suckling the confection, Sasuke smiled gently. She was such a beautiful little thing, sweet and kind and altogether dainty. With Nathan as the father, and Naruto the mother, she didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being tall. Being as both Nathan and Naruto looked so fantastically alike, Narue was simply a miniature version of them both. The genes between the two blondes had mixed in a bewitching way, giving Sasuke the perfect little sister, except when she was pestering the living daylights out of the ten year old. Which was almost all the time. But he couldn't find it in himself to stay angry with her. All she had to do was bat those huge baby blues up at him, tiny pert and perfect nose twitching with mischievous adoration, the two tiny whisker marks gracing each round and rosy cheek, and Sasuke caved.

Narue took the candy out of her mouth for a moment. "Where's Mommy?" She asked innocently.

Before Sasuke could answer diplomatically, suddenly Naruto's voice was heard, despite the shut doors between them, crying out, "Oh, god, Nathan!" Followed by a very familiar triumphant and exultant victory cry from their blonde father.

Those enormous blue eyes got somehow even more huge, and she quivered with suppressed laughter. "Daddy is sooooo bad!"

Sasuke gave yet another suffering sigh, even though in his heart, he agreed with her.

A few moments later, Stefan staggered out the back door, looking rather disheveled. He turned beet red when his two children simply smirked at him. He coughed, smoothed back his tousled hair, and then reached out for them.

Giggling, yea, even Sasuke, they threw themselves into his arms. Stefan was not an overly demonstrative man, but years with Nathan and Naruto had softened him somewhat. Even so, hugs from Papa were not to be disdained, and were to be enjoyed whenever and wherever they were offered. And Papa was always so very affectionate after locking himself away with Daddy and/or Mama.

And Narue dearly loved her dark and sometimes dour Papa. With all the strength of her tiny yet mighty heart. Especially when he was so very sweet after loving with Daddy and Mommy. He always smelled differently then too, all earthy and spicy. She hugged him tighter and breathed in deeply, the better to catch the elusive but delightful scent of all three of her parents irrevocably combined. It soothed the ruffled feathers she got after cutting remarks from her preschool comrades.

After the long and fierce three cornered hug, Sasuke and Stefen entered into a battle of wits, with Sasuke the inevitable loser. But with each skirmish, he grew wiser and cannier, and Stefan always smiled at his eldest child with such a proud smirk, that even Narue's heart swelled with triumph. And how she loved watching these events, torn between cheering her brother and her Papa on. She'd long ago decided to cheer both of them equally.

By this time, Mommy and Daddy had joined them, equally delicious smelling, and the evening frolic degenerated into a five teamed family effort of tag. And as was expected, both Sasuke and Stefan tried to disdainfully decline. But equally normal, she, Mommy, and Daddy always managed to change their minds. There was something so magical about watching her Papa, unusually carefree and wild, laughing fit to kill as he chased Mama, who was chasing Sasuke, likewise bewitched into mirth, and being chased by Daddy, who was fleeing Narue herself. And just as always, all five of them ended up by rolling around in the grass and flowers until none of them could move a muscle, almost smothered by the scent of honeysuckle and night blooming jasmine.

Narue drew a deep breath into her five year old lungs. Life was very good indeed. Pooh on those old farts at the supermarket, and the snot nosed brats at daycare. Like Mama, she'd just turn her nose into the air when they said anything.

The sun had completely set, and finally, Stefan recovered his wits and they all got up and trooped back into the house. There was a quick spritz in the bathroom for the children, delivered by Naruto, to recover clean bodies from bruised flower petals and grass stains.

Narue, having gone first, danced down the hall in her fluffy jimmies, set to ensorcel one of her fathers into a lengthy bedtime stories. Oddly enough, it was Papa who fell to her charms first, and she did love his stories, full of wit and grace and twists and turns. She far preferred them to her Daddy's stories chock full of adventures and knights and damsels in distress by fire breathing dragons, or evil overlords. But how Sasuke loved Nathan's adventure tales. Her brother, in typical boy fashion, loved blood, guts, and gore.

But innocent little Narue would not get any bedtime story tonight, either with intrigue or swordplay. But she did get something to worry her little heart and make tears stand out in her blue eyes.

She peeked around the door to her parents room, and saw Papa staring down at what looked like pictures. And Papa wasn't smiling like before; he was frowning thunderously.

"I don't care if you think I'm making too much of this, Stefan," Daddy was saying with a mutinous look on his face. "I tell you, it explains everything; Naruto's strange fits, her wild stories. And look. He looks just like you, like Sasuke. But I know the boy can't be you or our son. It's 'him' I tell you. And he'll take Naruto away from us."

Stefan sighed and set the pictures down. Rather carelessly for him. They slipped off the edge of the desk by the door and spilled to the ground at Narue's feet. "I'm not saying you're making too much of this, koi," he took Nathan's chin in his hand, felt the slight quiver in it, and tilted his younger husband's face up to look into his. "But as much sense as it makes, it raises that many more questions. If this is Naruto's long lost 'Sasuke', why is he so young? You tell me he looks exactly like in the last photograph. Well, that would make him, what… sixteen? Seventeen? Naruto's thirty three. And if her tales are to be believed, he's older than she is. Jason thinks he may be the man's son. That is what I believe."

Nathan's chin quivered harder. "But what if he's Naruto's son as well? Can we keep them apart?"

Stefan smiled gently and shook his head. "There's no way, lover. Naruto was a virgin when I took her. Her only children are our children. He's nothing to us."

Nathan's eyes filled with tears. "But Stefan, whether he's the son, or the man himself, it makes Naruto's stories true. But how can that be? And even if they are true, I don't care. I love her. She's our wife, the mother of our children. How can we let someone take her away from us? How can we let someone take her away from the kids?" Nathan gave a sudden yip. "What if 'he' takes the children from us too? Oh, god, Stefan!" The tears overflowed.

Stefan was horrified. Sure, their life was far from perfect, but it was so damn good he often woke at night, stared down at his two mates, and shivered with how wondrous it was to be with them like this. But now someone stood to endanger his precious family, and had made Nathan cry.

He hated it when Nathan cried. Like when Naruto did it, it made Stefan feel wild, dangerous, ready to kill. Ready to utterly destroy whoever or whatever caused his beloved ones pain. Thankfully, Nathan seldom cried; only doing so when his heart was stricken to the core. And Stefan was around to see that such events rarely happened to his sunny, bright and beautiful husband. Likewise with Naruto. If Stefan could have slain Naruto's fears and heartsickness, like the heros in Nathan's bedtime stories, he would have done so years ago.

He pulled Nathan into his arms, and slowly kissed his tears away. "Hush, Nathan, be still. Don't cry. You make me crazy when you cry. Do you really think I will let anyone take our Naruto away from us? Madness. Nor will I let anyone take away our children. Didn't I make that plain when the state tried to separate us, after Narue was born? Shush now, sweetheart. I will make us all safe, like I always do."

Unbeknownst to the children, four years ago, DCS tried to dismantle the Madara/Arashi/Uzumaki household, stating that a homosexual and polygamous relationship was detrimental to the fabric of American society at large. They tried to condemn Stefan's passionate love of Nathan, the sexual relationship all three adults indulged in, and the harm it could be doing the children of said union.

Stefan had pulled out all the stops. Not only did he utilize the army of Madaran attorneys, he sought out some of the highest, most celebrated lawyers in the world. He roused both the homosexual and Mormon communities on their behalf. He yanked Sasuke out of the exclusive boy's school he was going to, and fired the nanny that assisted Naruto with Narue's care. Both parties had been witnesses for the DCS investigators. It was a huge hue and cry, and headlines were splashed across the planet.

Nathan turned out to be a very charismatic partner in this endeavor. His boyish good looks and devastating charm swayed men and women alike. Nathan didn't often wax eloquent, not being all that good with his mouth, ahem, verbally that was. But with his lover, his wife, and his children at stake, he'd found a heretofore undiscovered wealth of earnestness that stood them in good stead. He'd somehow made a bisexual, polygamous family look good.

As had Naruto, who'd shown not a trace of the mental instability that had plagued them all during and after Narue's birth. In fact, it had been instrumental in ending her latest funk. She'd surprised them all with her flying colors of battle.

Hell, even Phillip had stalked into the public eye, girded for war, ready to fight on behalf of the once loathed Nathan. By then, the older man had come to love Nathan as the light hearted and carefree son he'd never had. And Naruto! God, he loved her like a daughter, and had been thrilled to the tips of his toes, in his calm and rather frigid way, for giving him grandchildren. Yes, grandchildren. He loved Narue as much as Sasuke.

It had been a bloody, but victorious battle. Stefan's way with words and dripping scorn that lashed to the bone, Nathan's bright smiles and big heart, Naruto's feisty defense of her chosen lifestyle, Phillips stern and inflexible faith in his unorthodox family, and the combination of the biggest and brightest stars in the world of law…

They'd sued the pants off DCS, the high falutin' private school, and very prestigious company that supplied the nanny. It cost the state millions in defense fees and ensuing lawsuits from other discriminated against same sex or multi partnered families. It became a byword in the homosexual and polygamous societies. They were famous.

Stefan then bought this sprawling complex and lands, hired private tutors, and opened his own school for gifted children not five miles away from their very luxurious home. They finally found the peace and love and happiness that had almost been lost so many times.

Sadly, it was Phillip Madara's last fight in the limelight. He'd carefully hidden the fact he was in the last stages of terminal cancer. He died less than a year later, his whole family, which included the Sannins as well, at his bedside. Phillip died a warmer and happier man than he lived most of his life. And Marilyn, Stefan's mother, faded away. Rather like Minato Arashi, she couldn't face life without her lifetime partner. When she died, two years later, she did so as quietly and unobtrusively as she had lived.

Stefan, as well as his family, had been devastated. His parents were laid near Ethan's in the Madara plot. He'd been plunged into his own depression. And Naruto had done something unexpected. She'd talked at length with Nathan, Suzanne, and Jason. Then, two months later, she and Nathan had taken Stefan to the cemetery.

At great expense, and even greater secrecy, she, Nathan, and the Sannins had enlarged the Madera's section in the graveyard, and had Minato and Kushina removed from their resting places to reside beside the Madara matriarch and patriarch. And there, next to Ethan's grave, were three plots, covered in rose bushes, where she, Nathan, and Stefan would lay, when their time came.

And despite how bizarre and macabre such a gift was, Nathan and Naruto had held him tightly, and said in unpracticed unison, "We are one."

And Stefan's heart was made whole.

And yet, here again, a danger and a threat was made against his family, and like before, Stefan would fight tooth and nail to keep what was his.

AN; What have I gotten us all into? I LOVE this family! How can I break it up? But how can I deny or reconcile Konoha's Sasuke? What will I do? Ah… hell… I'll figure something out. I always do.


	5. Chapter 5

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 5

Though both of the trio's children were very precocious and highly intelligent, Narue didn't understand one tenth of what she'd overheard. All she knew was that there was danger outside that could possibly take Mommy away, or, worse yet, take them all away from Papa and Daddy. One of the pictures was resting on her bare pink toe, and she bent down to pick it up.

It was a picture of Mommy, as a girl apparently, for she looked so young. She was smiling one of her bright and brilliant smiles, an arm flung over the shoulders of what looked like either Sasuke a few years from now, or her father a long time ago. It was taken in front of a building the likes of which she'd never seen before. She'd lived almost all her life in this cozy but spacious home, but she'd been all over with one or all of her parents, even abroad for vacations. She'd never, ever seen anything like the strange city in the background of this picture. And from what her fathers were saying, it was of a boy that was neither father nor brother.

Instinctively knowing her fathers would not be happy with her overhearing what was obviously a tender and sensitive topic, and that they'd want her to see these pictures even less, she almost crushed it in her little hand, turned around, and scampered back the way she came, fear darkening her heart.

Neither man heard her, or was aware of how a little girl's world was beginning to crash down around her ears.

Lips parted moistly, and Nathan found that as usual, his older, darker husband had eased his fears and torment. He looked into obsidian eyes and smiled tremulously.

"I love you so much, Stefan. I don't know what I would do without you."

"You wont ever have to find out, koi," Stefan responded softly, with another intimate kiss. "None of us will ever have to."

There was a scrambling in the hallway, and Sasuke hurled himself into the bedroom, after a quick check to make sure he would not interrupt things. Both men squawked when a damp bundle of boyhood tumbled them onto the great bed in the center of the room.

Laughing softly, Naruto followed her oldest child in, and looked around.

"Hey, where's Narue? She's not in her bedroom." She asked, frowning gently. The little girl always came to the bedroom after her bath, to beg stories from her fathers.

It took a moment for the squealing to die down, from Sasuke being double teamed by his tickling fathers.

Stefan smiled affectionately down at Sasuke, who was panting with tears of laughter in his dark liquid eyes, planted a moist kiss in the center of the boy's forehead, and heaved himself off the bed. "I'll get her. Probably in the kitchen scouring about for sponge cake. You know how she loves it."

Sasuke grabbed his Papa's neck and hugged him fiercely. "Okay, Papa. I want to hear how the pirate got away from the hanging judge, you know. Daddy never finished the story last night."

Nathan laughed indulgently, as did the other two adults. "That's because you fell asleep in the middle of it, Sauce."

"Hey! Don't call me that! One day I'll be like that pirate, and who ever heard of a pirate named Sauce?"

Chuckling placatingly, Nathan heaved his son up and planted the boy on his shoulders. "Ahoy there, Captain Picante Sauce! Land ho! Batten down the hatches, ye scurvy dogs! Once evil judge Papa captures Roo, and makes her walk the plank, we'll be there to save fair sister!"

Nathan kept up his scandalously piratical lingo up until the pair vanished into Sasuke's room.

Stefan paused long enough to thoroughly kiss Naruto before beginning the hunt for his erring daughter. "Ours!" He said in a sibilant whisper before disappearing from the bedroom himself.

Naruto watched him go with a soft look in her eyes. She still didn't understand why Nathan was so amorous today, more so than usual. And Stefan, instead of teasing the other man for his insatiable appetite as normal, had aided and abetted the blonde man in waylaying her. Even though a couple of hours had passed since the interlude here earlier, she still felt the wonderful lassitude that always came when both her husbands ganged up on her sexually. It had been so deliciously quick and rough and tumble. Chuckling, she went into the bathroom and began to clean up herself from the families energetic play.

Stefan did not find his daughter in the kitchen, nor in the dining room. He didn't find her in the bathroom, or in the now moon washed back yard. Finally, passing by the frilly little bedroom she slept in, that he'd already checked, he heard a soft sniffle.

Slipping into the darkened room, he was startled to find Narue sitting on the wide seat in the window, tears streaking her face. Silently, he perched himself on the sill that was so ample for tiny downy limbs, but so narrow for his bigger body.

"You're crying, Narue. Want to tell me why?" He asked softly, reaching out and tipping up her chin in the same gentle manner that he had his blonde husband earlier. Stefan might be rather cold and reserved, but with his family he was warm and tender and very loving.

Narue simply stared at her dark father, blue eyes darkened by night and worry, and filmed with pools of tears. Her chin quivered in that way that all three blondes had that tore the raven's heart apart. Then she gave a soft gasp, and swarmed into his lap and embrace.

"Papa, I love you. I love Daddy and Mommy too. I want us to stay like this forever. I don't want anything to change. Papa, please, please, promise me we'll always be together. Please, Papa!"

Stefan was silent, foreboding in his heart. Then he took a deep breath. "You were listening by our door earlier, and heard things not meant for your ears, weren't you, little one?" He said, stroking long blonde hair.

"I'm sorry, Papa! I only came to beg a story, truly. But I heard you and Daddy talking, and then Daddy cried, and I know someone terrible is coming to hurt us all!" Narue began to cry stormily.

Stefan straightened the little body that trembled so fiercely in his arms, and made his daughter look into his eyes. "First of all, Narue, you worry for nothing. I will never allow anyone to hurt any of us. You, Sasuke, Daddy, Mommy and I will always be a family, no matter what changes life brings us. Things never remain the absolute same. Change is a part of life. But I promise you this. Mommy, Daddy, and I will always live together while we are alive, and we will let nothing, and no one tear us apart. Do you understand?"

But Narue refused to uncurl, instead clutching her father's shirtfront, which was dampening at an alarming rate, harder.

"Precious Roo," Stefan went on relentlessly, "look at me. That's my girl. You know how I am. I won't let anything endanger this family. I never have and I never will. I will always find a way to defeat those that would seek to tear us apart. There is always a way."

"And if there's not a way?" Narue whimpered, still fearful.

Stefan smirked in a way that greatly comforted the little girl's riled spirit. "Well, in that case, I'll have to be like all the knights in Daddy's stories. I will kill the bad guy. I will kill to keep this family safe."

One would think such a bloodthirsty statement, especially delivered in such a cold menacing way, would unnerve the child more, but Narue, like her mother, was not like other little girls. Knowing her quiet and reserved father would kill to keep them together, and knowing he meant every word, calmed her down considerably.

Calmed her so much, in fact, that she gave a watery giggle. "That is if Daddy lets you, and doesn't kill them first." Narue had already seen how ready to throw down her blonde father was, when it came to the family's wellbeing.

"Oh, in this case, I'm sure Daddy will let me have a piece as well." Stefan gave his daughter a tender kiss on the brow, followed by one on her perfect nose, so identical to Nathan's and Naruto's. Indeed. Stefan would bloody his immaculate hands to keep his family safe and together with him.

"But we wont have to, pumpkin, and do you know why?" Stefan went on, easing Narue off his lap and into her snug little bed.

"Why, Papa?" She asked innocently, wide eyed and filled with so much trust and love that Stefan's heart smote him and strengthened his resolve to keep them all safe.

"Because, first of all, it's not completely sure that this boy is a threat. He may be a piece of Mommy's past. Time will tell. But if he really does turn out to be a villain, then I'll simply scare the very socks off him. I will. You know I can do it too."

Narue giggled sleepily, worn out from her frantic musings and fears, and now so warm and snug with the Papa that would do whatever he must to protect them.

"And if he's still moronic enough to keep bothering us, well, I'll drag him behind the woodshed and paddle his bottom until it glows pink, and he's crying like a baby."

Narue's eyes got round at this. Sasuke once had to be paddled, when Stefan found him skipping school one day with a friend, and smoking cigarettes behind the theater. Sasuke could attest to paddled pink bottoms and how awful they were.

"And then…" Stefan went on, gentling his voice, and proceed to tell her all the twists and turns the boy would suffer if he continued on his path to destruction; ie. Threatening the MAU family, as she had dubbed them all, finding the words Madara/Arashi/Uzumaki too big a mouthful.

And slowly but surely, her lids drooped, and her bedtime story eased her fears and she slipped away into slumber. He gave her sleeping head one last gentle kiss and tucked her in, slipping out and partially closing the door behind him.

When he arrived in the bedroom, Nathan had just arrived from his tucking duty and delight.

"That boy is voracious!" The blonde man exclaimed, drawing a hand across his brow as if sweaty.

"Hmmm…" Naruto chuckled, brushing her short blonde hair, tendrils still damp. "And I wonder how he came by that particular trait?"

Though she knew her husband's didn't believe in her origins, she was well aware that Nathan and Stefan were this world's equivalent of herself and Sasuke. And in a rather odd way, though Nathan did not provide the seed that created the life of the boy in her womb, he was as biologically related to Sasuke as she was. They were two of the same, differing only by gender, however wrong it was in her case, and different universal origins.

Nathan watched her, dismissing her statement as he became hypnotized by the glittering gold of her hair winking in the lamplight, and opened his mouth to make some sort of saucy comment, when the door abruptly yet softly closing with a snick, brought both blondes attention to Stefan.

The dark haired man leaned against the door, looking rather fierce and not a little dangerous. He stared into the mirror into the reflection of Naruto's blue eyes.

"You," he suddenly said, his voice rather chilly and determined, one hand lifting with the quickness of a striking snake to point at Naruto, "are mine. And you," the finger jabbed in Nathan's direction. "You're mine too. You have been all along. And those two children out there, they're mine too. You are all mine, and I will never let you go. Do you understand?"

Nathan nodded, swallowing audibly. Stefan was rather alarming, even to him, when he became like this.

But Naruto, who in her youth was used to such cold possessiveness, was undaunted. Stefan, as fierce as he could be, couldn't hold a candle to a boy that would sooner kill than argue. Sasuke Uchiha would laugh scornfully at the notion of courtrooms and lawyers. And Naruto likewise knew that in his own way, Stefan loved her almost as much as he did Nathan. He would never hurt her, not deliberately anyway. And she was no fragile doll, no matter how her husbands tended to think of her.

She set her hairbrush down on the vanity with a thump. "That's it. What the hell is wrong with you two?"

She turned and rose from the stool, her sheer robe hinting at the glories within. "Not that I'm complaining, because I love making love with you both, but really, what happened today? Did someone slip you both viagra or something? You've been jumping me and each other all afternoon, and you've both been unusually aggressive. What gives?"

Stefan merely smirked, and prowled over to her by way of Nathan. "Just staking my territory, love, that's all." He caught Nathan by the collar and drug him forward for a hot hard kiss. "You're wearing too many clothes, koi. Remedy that."

He released a dazed and smitten blonde man, who really, really liked it when Stefan got all medieval on him, and very quickly divested himself of his clothes.

"And you, my beautiful vixen," how Stefan loved to refer to Naruto as a female fox, something the woman found not only ironic, but very erotic, "come here. I want you."

And like Nathan, she grew weak in the knees, and hastened to submit. There was nothing like a raven getting all dominant to make her all hot and bothered, whether in Konoha or in America.

But Naruto was not one to submit without protest, without some sort of victory for herself. She'd never let Sasuke Uchiha get away with it; there was no way in hell she would lay down like a doormat for Stefan Madara, now matter how identical he was to her long lost lover.

She gave a siren like smile, and did obey, walking towards him very slowly, one set of delicate fingers tugging gently on the tie to her robe. "Is that so, Stefan? You want me? Oh, I see…"

The robe slipped from her bare shoulders, the sleeveless night gown, even more transparent than the robe, clinging to her glorious breasts, with the shadowy hint of other golden glories below.

Knowing he was being teased, becoming excited by it even as she challenged his ultimate authority over his two blonde mates, Stefan gave Nathan, already fully erect, a nod.

"Oh yes, my little tease. And I'm going to have you too. Right now. Nathan, hold her, like you did the first time. Hold her for me."

Nathan's hard, warm body was suddenly pressing against her back, making her tingle. The blonde man's arms were around her, on hand resting on her satin covered belly, the other slowly pulling one shoulder of the nightgown down, as he moistly kissed the side of her neck.

Naruto gave a groan. Though she'd been a woman now longer than she'd been a boy, the lack of an erection still struck her as strange. However, she wasn't able to dwell on it for long at all. Trapped against Nathan's aroused body, there was no where for her to go when Stefan was suddenly before her, hands seizing the front of her nightgown, and ripping it, from low collar to the hem that danced over her upper thighs, in a single wrenching pull. With bared breasts, she quivered, and then moaned when firm lips caught one nipple, just one nipple, and nibbled it teasingly.

Naruto was quivering madly, head thrown back onto Nathan's shoulder. The blonde man slid the hand from her belly, over her hip, and snaked around to the back of her thigh. Catching it firmly in his large, strong hand, he lifted that leg until her knee slid over his hand, and she was caught, pinned with one leg spread up and to the side. It raised her up on her toes, and she gasped and whimpered to be so wonderfully vulnerable and exposed to her dark, unusually savage husband.

Stefan continued to tease and torment her with his lips and teeth and tongue, his hands moving quickly to make his own clothes fall into a heap at his feet. A quick flick of one foot tossed the clothing to the side, and he was as naked as they were. He reached between Naruto's spread legs, and caught the blonde man's swollen member, squeezing firmly.

Nathan yelped, breaking the long kiss that would leave such a dark hickey on the side of her neck. Pleasure coursed though the smaller man, and his legs began to tremble. Nathan turned slightly, and pressed his back to one of the large fluted wooden columns at each corner of the massive bed, lest he fall to the floor and take Naruto with him.

Stefan laughed huskily, dipped his head licked the leaking tip wedged between Naruto's buttocks.

Nathan's breathy moan past her ear made Naruto shake harder. Oh, god, she knew what was going to happen now. And she loved it. To be taken at the same time, by both the men she loved so much, made her head spin with sheer unadulterated lust. Even if the positioning was new.

While Stefan alternated between digging his tongue through the short coarse yellow curls between Naruto's thighs, and the hard shaft pressing so insistently against the split in her rear, the woman cried out when cold and slippery fingers eased past Nathan's erection and began to probe her backside thoroughly, spreading and piercing her tender anus.

Like the candy that Stefan made, he likewise had dabbled in tasty and safe lubricants, since the three of them used it so much. The taste of oil or KY was distasteful to them all, and Stefan would be damned if their intimate relations would be anything but as perfect as they could possibly be. And the oldest man would produce his homemade sexual jellies with the éclat of a magician. As if from the very air.

Nathan pressed himself harder to the wide pole, breathing harshly in Naruto's ear as his other hand left her shoulder, tweaked a still damp nipple and making her shiver, to the last leg still holding her up. Like the other, it was lifted up and away, so that she now hung completely at her two husbands' mercy, spread as wide as possible, and unable to shield her most vulnerable points of entry. The blonde man was quivering as hard as his captured wife, feeling Stefan's hot breath on his twitching cock, slippery fingers preparing Naruto for his entrance into her body, smearing the same all over his length. Oh yes, Nathan knew what was coming as well, and it took all his considerable fortitude to keep from puddling into a pool of goo at Stefan's feet as well.

Feelings the hard trembling in both his lovers, Stefan gave a husky laugh into the warm and musky scented curls hiding Naruto's womanhood from sight. God, Naruto was soaking wet, front and back. Perfect. He gave a hard prod to her swollen clit with a rigid tongue, smirked at her cry of shocked pleasure, and moved up to suckle another hard nipple. His hands gripped her spread buttocks firmly, lifting her slightly. His large fingers, curving downwards, lightly brushed the sides of Nathan's quivering penis, and coaxed the blonde man into shifting slightly, until that plum taut tip wedged tightly in the tightly furled and lightly flexing entrance to Naruto's rear. Stefan gave her hips a quick shimmy, a sharp lift up, and then sank her down, impaling her slowly on Nathan's unforgiving spike.

Stefan lifted his head, the motion sharp and wolf like, as both blonde's cried out harshly in pleasure. The sight of the two most precious blonde mates, Naruto's head bent back over Nathan's shoulder, while the blond man sank his teeth into that side of Naruto's neck, blue eyes veiled with passion and darkened with pleasure as he stared down the creamy expanse of Naruto's body to stare into the pitch black eyes smirking up into his from her breast. Black eyes splintered with hints of red.

He was too tall for his partners for what he had in mind next, so Stefan abandoned Naruto's reddened nipple, and pressed himself hard to her body, smirking to feel the deep internal tremors that wracked both blondes. He caught up both of their bodies, husband and wife, and with a quick, strong move, deposited them on their backs in the middle of the bed, laying sideways across it.

Nathan still had a deathgrip on both thighs, keeping her spread wide, and dared not thrust, lest he climax far to early for his tastes. And in a moment it wouldn't matter. He gasped and panted harshly as his husband took a moment to admire the sight of his straining cock buried to the hilt in Naruto's rear, balls tight and twitching against that creamy silken perineum. God, he was going to come! Stefan's sexual assault on their wife would push and pull her deliciously against him, giving him mind bending friction where he needed it most. Right now he had to hold on, keep a tight rein on his pleasure, because he would need all his self control in a second and…

Oh my fucking god!

Nathan never realized he'd shouted the last out, when Stefan finally lunged forward, and buried himself to the hilt inside Naruto's pulsing sheath, his own balls pressing tenderly against the blondes, as they both jockeyed for position between Naruto's speared orifices. The younger man had felt every inch of Stefan's cock sliding up against his own, separated by only a thin membrane of tissue.

Naruto herself was writhing between their bodies, pinned relentlessly onto and between them, crying out in breathless little moans, unable to catch her breath from the intense pleasure and pressure inside her body.

Looking over her shoulder, Stefan stared deep into the blue eyes of the man he loved more than anyone else in the world. As dear and beloved as Naruto was, Nathan was Stefan's reason for living. Naruto's loss would be a grievous blow, one he would never really recover from. He would mourn her for the rest of his days, heart stricken. But Nathan… god, if he lost Nathan, he didn't know if he would be able to survive. There would be no more will to live. Oh, he would do so, for the children's sake, but life would be endlessly black and white, sharp with stark endless pain, yet dull and drab, and as soon as the kids were old enough to make it on their own, he would follow his blonde lover into whatever awaited on the other side.

"I love you… so much…" he choked out, staring relentlessly into endless pools of summer blue skies.

Nathan's eyes regarded him steadfastly, lashes flickering but not closing from not only the intense pleasure of their lovemaking, but from the soul deep love and devotion in the eyes of the man above them both. And Nathan understood. For as much as he too loved and cherished Naruto, this man, the dark and often cold man hovering above them both, gave him reason to draw breath every day.

Then both sets of cerulean blue closed helplessly, when Stefan began to move in slow, sinuous strokes, caressing them both intimately. But Stefan himself was too moved, by the pleasure, the passion, the love all three of them were radiating. His thrusts quickened, deepened, rubbing relentlessly against the hard ridge of Nathan buried in Naruto's ass, and the pulsing, flexing sheath of Naruto's femininity.

"Stop… koi…" Nathan rasped, shuddering. "I'm gonna… I'm gonna… Fuck… Slow down…"

"No," Stefan almost snarled. "Come for me, both of you, now!"

Even before the harsh words came from the dark man's mouth, Naruto began to keen helplessly, her whole body shuddering in orgasm. It was too much, to be so pinned, so speared, so impaled on two rock hard cocks, one moving harshly inside her, the other still yet pulsing frantically. She spasmed hard, clenching down on both men inside her.

And it was too much for Nathan; those red shot black eyes watching him unblinkingly, the feel of his lover's cock thrusting relentlessly against his own from inside Naruto, and the hard flexing of the woman between them, and Nathan was lost. He gave a hoarse triumphant shout as he emptied himself deep in Naruto's bowels, arching up despite the weight on his body, to dig himself deeper, spill himself more hotly.

Stefan's eyes flickered, and he bit Naruto's shoulder harshly to hold back his own orgasm, but he wasn't done yet, oh no. There was still a blonde male that had to be claimed, to be marked as owned by him. It took every ounce of his considerable willpower to not come just then.

Before the echoes had even begun to fade in his two lovers, he pulled up, taking Naruto with him, and Nathan slipped quickly from her body with a wet sound, making both blondes cry out again. Keeping Naruto hung off his body, long pale fingers invaded the woman's loosened body, scooping up as much of Nathan's come as he could. Then the hand slid between the blonde man's still spread legs, and delved deep into his body where the fingers had been in hers.

Oversensitized from the orgasm that still resonated through his body, Nathan flinched from the sensation of being probed, spread, feeling his own seed lubricating those long and wicked fingers. And it didn't hurt that Naruto's excited flows had slid over his scrotum and trickled between his own thighs, aiding the wetness now being forced into his throbbing body. His cock, filmed with semen, twitched and never had a chance to soften. Those knowing fingers had already found his prostate, pressing softly and rhythmically against it.

When Nathan shoved back against his fingers, Stefan knew he'd instantly rekindled the blonde male's passion once more, and he withdrew his fingers, and gently laid Naruto on her back beside their fair husband.

Still shuddering from her own climax, Naruto was slick with their combined sweat, and lay there, legs spread wide, blue eyes still dazed and shaken from first Nathan's retreat, then Stefan's from her body.

The sight of his two almost identical blonde lovers, spread wide for him, wet with their labors, blue eyes glazed, pink mouths open and panting desperately, was almost too much for Stefan. He gripped the sticky base of his cock harshly.

"Naruto, my sweet, it's not over yet," he ground out. "Not by a long shot. Nathan… koi… Take her. Because now I want you."

A long fingered hand tugged insistently on Nathan's hip, and still trembling, the blonde male obeyed him implicitly. Indeed, when Stefan was like, he reduced his blond partner to eager compliance. Not that Nathan was ever anything but eager with him.

Shivering, Nathan groaned softly as he rolled over, sliding himself between Naruto's quivering thighs, and then into her drenched body. Both blondes cried out at the contact once more, and Stefan hissed, watching Nathan sink deep.

He couldn't wait anymore. Grabbing the huge pillow at the head of the bed, he shoved it under Naruto's hips, lifting both her, and Nathan, higher. Perfect. Long fingers trembled with unsatisfied lust as he caressed Nathan's round, perfect and taut buttocks. God, how he loved this part of his blonde lover. This hard, high, tight ass that teased him every day of his life. He spread the pert globes, and then slid slowly inside, hissing all the while like a snake.

Fuck, no matter how many times he fucked Nathan, the blonde stayed as tight as a virgin. He sank slowly, deeply, relentlessly to the hilt. Nathan cried out in pleasure, echoed by Naruto, who was penetrated deeper because of it.

Stefan relaxed a moment against Nathan's back, nose buried in soft blond locks, breathing deeply of the scent of his lovers. And despite his promises, he knew he wouldn't last long. Nathan was too tight, he was too excited by watching his blonde lover deep in Naruto's ass, from feeling his hard cock against his own, each deep in different but perfectly chambers of the blonde woman's body. Fuck….

And Stefan began to move, deep, hard, almost punishing strokes. "Mine!" He ground out fiercely, digging deep, forcing Nathan deeper as well. "Both… mine!"

Naruto and Nathan's cries were now muffled as the two blondes began to kiss frantically. Nathan was sawed back and forth between the hot sheath of Naruto, and the burning sword of Stefan, pierced and penetrating both. And through it all, Stefan kept crying out words of fierce possession.

The dark haired man claimed his own, all over again. Both Nathan, with deep insistent thrusts, right against the blonde's prostate, and Naruto, even though he'd already claimed her moments before, by the proxy of Nathan's body.

Nathan was lost again. He tore his mouth from Naruto's, buried his face in her sweaty hair, and screamed his pleasure against the flesh of her neck, his body almost convulsing from the intensity of it all. Naruto, feeling the blonde shove frantically deep and explode in a torrent of liquid fire deep inside, followed quickly, keening shrilly as she climaxed abruptly, hard and viciously like a rabid dog. And Stefan, he choked, as Nathan's body crushed his throbbing cock in a velvet vise, gasped, and threw back his head, shouting out his last claim.

"All mine!"

The words, barely understood, degenerated into a growl, as he froze deep inside Nathan's clenching body, and strained against the man, jerking and twitching with the force of his orgasm. There was an endless moment, their bodies locked together in excruciating pleasure, intense pressure, and hearts pounded frantically in unison.

Then all three relaxed at the same moment, falling into one tangled, damp heap. The two men rested there a moment, drawing in deep shuddering breaths, then each rolled to opposite sides, knowing their combined weight would surely crush their more delicate lover. Bodies disconnected with wet slides and almost panicked cries, and then all three of them were at rest, bodies quivering, hands gripping each other indiscriminately, and they slowly relaxed and felt the world at large return around them.

But the world didn't stay long. Moments later, one after the other, they slid into exhausted slumber.


	6. Chapter 6

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 6

Sasuke restlessly prowled his tiny apartment, as bare and utilitarian as it had been the day he moved in, four weeks ago. It had been difficult to procure all the identification and papers he'd needed to work and live in this world, but he wasn't a highly skilled shinobi and genius for nothing. He'd only had to ask the right questions in low places, do an unsavory job or two, and voila! Sasuke Uchiha now had an entirely fabricated history in this place. He'd been born to Shirley and Chin Uchiha in Seattle, Washington, before moving to the LA Basin twenty years ago. Tragically, his mythical parents had perished in one of the many quakes in that region; Sasuke didn't even care which one it had been. It wasn't as if it really mattered. He wouldn't bother to discuss his 'family history' with anyone in this world. All he needed was the little cards and papers, and he had them now.

Even so, Sasuke didn't intend to stay in this world long enough for anything he acquired to have any meaning. Thus, he bought nothing, added nothing to the mean little furnished flat he now resided in. He spent all his money on just enough food to keep him healthy, good enough clothes to keep him working. The rest he spent on his search. Once he found Naruto, he'd find a way back home, with his precious blonde in tow. He'd lived too long without his lover as it was.

And Naruto was so close, he could taste it. Could almost smell the rich, earthy and slightly spicy scent that was uniquely Naruto. That damned mind doctor, Jason Sannin knew where he was. Dammit, why was this all taking so long? He'd spoken with the accursed Jiraiya look alike over two hours ago. The damned man had promised he would speak with those that were close to Naruto, and get back to him. Didn't the idiot, as simple and stupid as his counterpart back home, understand how long he'd been looking? How much Naruto meant to him?

Dammit!

There was a hard pounding knock on his door, and Sasuke almost levitated a foot into the air. He was pacing so furiously, he'd completely lost contact with the real world. Heart pounding he dashed to the door to throw it open. Perhaps it was even Naruto! Maybe the damned doctor had brought him even now! Maybe…

Sasuke's heart slumped. It wasn't Naruto, or even the blonde male that looked so much like him from earlier today. No, it was that stupid pot smoking, guitar strumming Shika creature from down the lane. What the hell did he want? Sasuke hadn't said a word to him in weeks, not since he'd realized how different the two men that were one really were.

Then, his heart stopped beating for a moment. Wait a moment… The man was wearing a green padded flak jacket over a black mesh shirt, and around his bicep was a leaf hitai-ate.

"You're a hard man to find, Sasuke Uchiha," Shikamaru said in his placid, slightly annoyed voice.

It was an excessively rare moment. A moment where Sasuke was utterly confounded to the point of his mouth hanging open. This man at this place hadn't even crossed his mind.

Shikamaru gave a dry laugh, and pushed past the stonkered boy and ambled into the single bare room, blinking up at the naked bulb overhead.

"Nice digs," was his bland comment. Though his face was serene, inside he was chortling madly. Sasuke still stood before the open door, having rotated helplessly as he only stared in shock at him. Mwahahaha… he couldn't wait until he got home to tell Chouji how he'd completely stunned the imperious Uchiha.

Sasuke shook himself like a wet dog, all over, and finally recovered his wits. He closed and locked the door, and moved slowly, almost menacingly towards his fellow shinobi.

Shikamaru threw himself into the badly sprung couch and smirked at the other man. "I suppose you're wondering how I got here…"

"Not really," Sasuke said coolly, fully in possession of all his wits now. "I'm sure Kakashi is at the bottom of it."

Shikamaru shot a finger at him, like cocking a gun. "Right on the money, as usual. Sharingan. Useful thing, that. Even if it really all is so very troublesome."

There was a moment of silence.

"Well, have you found him? The love of your life?" It was still surreal to Shikamaru that _the _Sasuke Uchiha had the hots for Naruto Uzumaki. Not that he was really surprised. He'd always thought there was more to the pair of them than met the eye.

Sasuke didn't bother denying it. Yeah, they'd kept it a close secret in Konoha, for now anyway. But he knew it would never last, and he didn't want it too. Specially when people like Hinata Hyuuga and that damn fucker Sai tried to breathe down the blonde's neck. And though there was never any love lost between himself and the lazy Jounin, Sasuke was so very glad to see him. He'd been more homesick than even when in Sound. More homesick than he'd ever thought he'd be. He shook his head, eyes glued to the bare, dusty floor boards.

"Any leads?"

Sasuke drew in a deep breath. "I think so. I met someone here that recognized my headband. I'm waiting to hear back from him."

"Uchiha, have you seen any… um… familiar faces around here?" Shikamaru was still completely unnerved from his run in with his own face, higher than a kite and laughing and completely stupid! Shikamaru had felt ashamed that this was his double.

Sasuke smirked. "Oh yeah."

There was a long and strangely comfortable silence. Neither boy was the talkative type. Sasuke was glad to see Shikamaru, and the shadow user was glad to have finally found the Uchiha. Which reminded him…

"Listen, Uchiha."

Sasuke frowned at the distant, almost hesitant way the other boy was speaking. "Yeah, what?"

"How long have you been here?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed and he did a quick tally. "Just over five weeks. Exactly thirty six days, why?"

"Sasuke, you left Konoha three days ago."

Sasuke sat back, stunned. Three days? But he'd been here for weeks! That means…

"Time moves faster here."

"Yeah, imagine our shock," Shikamaru gave a short laugh. "We sent Neji through, the same day you left, with the understanding that the portal would be opened again twenty four hours later. When Kakashi opened it the next day, Neji looked at us, absolutely furious. Tsunade asked for his report, and Neji told her that he'd been waiting twelve days for pickup. That's when we realized something was wrong. Well, it took us several tries and we figured that out too. Time does move faster here. A lot faster."

"Is it consistent?" Sasuke asked, feeling cold dread settling in his gut.

"Yep. One day at home equals just over twelve days here."

Sasuke took less than a second to make the adjustment in his head. "That means, one month home is the same as a whole year here." The cold dread turned to numbing shock. His eyes dilated.

"That's right Uchiha," Shikamaru's voice was unusually gentle. "Naruto's been here eighteen years."

It was midmorning, and Stefan was not at the Madara headquarters. It was almost eleven o'clock, and Nathan was actually downtown instead of in his little office in the back of the house working on the website orders. Both men found themselves riding in Stefan's sleek black Porsche down some of the seediest streets in the area. They had an agenda today. There was a young man they were going to see, and get the answers that had plagued their lives for the last ten years. If this was 'Sasuke's' son, perhaps he could shed some light on why Naruto suffered the way she did. Why she'd been looking so long and hard, and why she was still so wounded inside, years after she'd finally given up.

Jason had called that morning. Apparently, he'd tried calling last night, but for obvious reasons, the phone had gone unanswered. Hell, neither men had even heard the phone ringing next to the bed, they'd been so involved. Well, finally Jason caught them early that morning, and it had been an interesting conversation to say the least.

But Stefan was a man of action. He would see this damned boy, and finally put to rest his husband's and children's fears. Hell, his own too.

They finally pulled up at the address Jason had given them, but there was no sign of the red convertible that the psychiatrist so favored. But, no sooner had they gotten out of the car, when it roared up. Jason stared unsmiling up at them as he pulled along side, then parked as well. He'd brought with him a very muscle bound rather thug looking man. It was a distant cousin of his, who'd once been a sumo wrestler in Japan. The man, now much slimmer, with his dark hair and rather scraggly beard, was a fearsome sight sometimes, and was always smoking foul cigarettes. Though Stefan had all the bells and whistles on his car, including a state of the art protection system, it was hard to keep a convertible safe on streets like this. Hence, his cousin, Shinra.

The three men stood on the curb for a moment, before Stefan said curtly, "Let's go."

Sasuke had been watching their arrival, expecting them, and swallowed dryly when he saw Stefan and Nathan. He was so stunned by the sight of them, that he didn't take note of Asuma's double with them. God, Nathan… as beautiful as Naruto… Naruto… And the other man. It was like looking at himself twenty years from now. Or rather, eighteen.

Sasuke swallowed the lump that was always in his throat since his talk with Shikamaru last night. The other Konohan was not there at the moment. He'd returned to the rendezvous point, to meet with Kakashi and Tsunade, as today was the twelfth day since his arrival. He took with him a detailed letter that Sasuke had written, his account for the last five weeks. He'd spared nothing. He would need Konoha to get home with his dobe. He would not alienate the Hokage further. That she was furious with his rashness and disobedience was evident in the letter that Shikamaru had given him this morning.

He was waiting by the door, and opened it even before they had the chance to knock. Opened it, and came face to face with the keepers of his hopes and dreams, fears and regrets. Opened it to come face to face with… himself.

"Come in," he said softly, stepping aside, trying not to stare at either his older face, or Naruto's older one. God… please… please let him not be too late. Please let there still be a Naruto for him. Please God.

Stefan's calm face did not betray his inner turmoil. Jesus god, it was like looking at himself in the distant past. This boy was the same age as Naruto had been, when they'd found her. This boy, with his face, stood to take so much from him.

Once the door was closed and locked, the darker man began without preamble.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I come from Konoha. I have come looking for my boyfriend, Naruto Uzumaki." It was important to Sasuke that nothing was unclear. The sooner they knew how determined he was, the better. He did not want to have to resort to violence, though he would if he had to. He had to find Naruto.

"I've been over and over this whole planet, Sasuke Uchiha, and I've never heard of any land called Konoha." Stefan was cold, and the feel of his son's first two names rolling off his tongue to a stranger was very strange.

"Yeah, you wouldn't." Sasuke smirked. "Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I explained it all to you."

"Then perhaps I will explain it all to you. Konoha is the capitol city of the Fire Nation, one of the five greatest Ninja realms in the world. It cannot be reached by any car or plane or train, but by a green door. And you are a shinobi. One of the most famous and skilled in the lands. You wield this fantastic power called Chakra, and are able to create fire, walk on water, run up cliffs, and change into other people as well as objects. You are more than Naruto Uzumaki's boyfriend, you are his lover, his most precious person." Stefan delivered all this with an expressionless face.

"Where is he?" Sasuke shot back, refusing to let his shock and excitement show. There was a lengthy pause, and then the Uchiha went on. "I know you know where he is. You've seen this before, this hitai-ate. And you have to have talked to him, to know all this. Where is Naruto?"

"Yes, I know Naruto Uzumaki," Stefan said softly, ignoring the suspended breath of his husband beside him, the blonde man almost dancing with impatience. "And I have heard these stories, and more, more times than I care to admit. But there is something you will understand." He took a deep breath. "Naruto Uzumaki is no boy, or even a man. She was a girl when we met her, she was a woman when we got her pregnant, and she was a woman when we married her. She's a woman still. I don't know what game you are playing, but I am tired of it. It will end now. I want to know why Naruto thinks she was born a boy, why she's so haunted by these ludicrous tales, and why you had pictures of her in her girlhood."

"I don't believe you," Sasuke said desperately. "Naruto would never stay a girl for long. He can't. There is no chakra here for him to use."

"Stay a girl," Nathan echoed, blue eyes troubled.

"Really, then how do you explain these?" Though he hated to do it, Stefan handed the dark boy his own series of photographs.

Sasuke looked through them slowly. Naruto as a teenaged girl, looking troubled; Naruto as a young woman, smiling shyly into the camera, her blonde male counterpart next to her. Naruto laying in a hospital bed, looking exhausted and sad, cradling a baby in her arms. Naruto, dressed in filmy white, with two dark tuxedoed men beside her, smiling happily as they had their arms around her. Naruto, dressed in a bright orange apron, brandishing a wooden spoon; Naruto…Naruto… Naruto… All female, all obviously in someone else's home, someone else's life, someone else's arms.

But… it was Naruto! Female or not. He'd know those eyes, those whiskers, anywhere. As much as Nathan resembled the man Naruto would have become, the eyes, they weren't quite the same, and he had no whiskers. His heart squeezed painfully in his breast. Naruto had taken lovers, Naruto had borne them children. Naruto had married them.

"Sexy no Jutsu," he whispered hollowly. He couldn't understand why Naruto had remained female after coming here. After all, Sasuke's own Sharingan shut down painfully hard when he'd arrived. With no chakra to power it, it was lost to him here. So should Naruto's henge… unless…

What if Naruto's trademark joke move hadn't been a henge? What if it had been a true transformation? He'd never cared for the jutsu at all, and of course had never pondered to save to think about how much he hated seeing Naruto as a girl. Thus, he'd never asked about it, never knew, never realized that it wouldn't fade with time, or failure of chakra, but only when Naruto would use chakra again to transform back. There were such Jutsus, after all. He'd just always thought it had been a stupid henge, not the remarkable jutsu it apparently was.

The enormity of it all struck Sasuke; Naruto had been trapped in an alien land, in an alien body, and hadn't been able to find his way home, his way back to his natural body. He'd been stuck here, like that, for _eighteen years!_ Alone, lonely, probably scared and heartsick. And without Sasuke. For eighteen years.

It did not pass him by that Naruto had now been female for three years longer than he'd been a boy. Naruto was… a married woman, with children.

He sat down heavily in the closest chair, tears in his eyes, and didn't care that three strange men, his rivals, his enemies, were watching. It really didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

Stefan, seeing the slump of defeat in the boy, the tears in his eyes, the shocked glaze on his face, gave a smug smirk. Obviously, the boy had no response to his sally. How could he?

"I still want to know why Naruto thinks she was born a boy. What sort of brain washing was used on her?" He asked coldly. Now that the farce was at an end, he would have his answers, so that Naruto would never be sad again.

"That's because she was born a boy," Sasuke responded in a choked voice. "Everything's true. I don't care if you believe it or not. Naruto was a boy, back in Konoha, and my lover."

"Don't be ridiculous," Stefan snapped, and shrugged off the hand that touched his arm. He didn't have time for Nathan's tender heart. As much as he loved the blonde man, and god, did he ever, sometimes his tenderness was a liability, like now.

"I'm not being ridiculous," Sasuke said, shaking his tears away, and straightening up, back ramrod stiff. "I'm assuming you love her, since you married her, since you got children off her. Won't you believe your own wife?" The words were as bitter as poison on his tongue. It angered him, knowing Naruto had told them, and they had not believed him. They did not deserve him.

His eyes burned with purpose. He didn't care if Naruto was now sixteen years older than him. He didn't care that Naruto was female now; he'd change that the moment they got home. He didn't care that he'd bedded other men, married them. He didn't care that he'd had children with them. Hell, in eighteen years, it was no wonder Naruto had thought he'd never see Sasuke again, never come home, never be a boy again. But he was Sasuke's Naruto, and by all that was holy, Sasuke was going to get him back.

A plan formed in his mind.

At Stefan's scornful sniff, Sasuke smirked ruthlessly. "And I can prove it to you."


	7. Chapter 7

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 7

A tall, thin man, who's aristocratic features belied the threadbare and mismatched clothes he was wearing, looked smug as another man, as thick as the first was thin, and as florid as the first was pale, cursed softly as he stared through the lens of a telescope trained on the apartment across the way.

"I told you he had some connection to that Madaran bastard, Tony," the first said with practiced hauteur. "And I also told you that in time, Stefan would come to him."

Tony, as meanly dressed as his companion, simply swore again, unable to tear his eyes from the two men in the room across the junk cluttered courtyard, riveted by the fact that the younger boy so greatly resembled the object of their hatred.

"Perhaps another bastard son, Frank?" Tony inquired, breathing heavily as always.

"Indubitably," the first said, ignoring the fact that Tony had used that damned nickname despite his wishes while watching the fat man with something akin to awe. How did Tony still remain so obese? It had been four years of barely eking a living from the filthy streets of the city, since Stefan Madara had made fools of them all in the courtroom. Made fools of them and cost them the very profitable companies both had enjoyed. Tony, fatter than ever, had run the agency that supplied the nanny to Stefan Madara's whore of a woman, as Francis had run the ivy league ranked private school that Stefan's apparently youngest bastard son had attended back then.

After the ridiculous high profile media circus of Madara and Arashi's trial, both men had lost everything. And Francis, who'd descended from kings and queens in England, had been drug down into the slums where he now lived and reigned. It was a horrifying, novel experience for the transplanted aristocrat. He never regretted his financial partnership with Tony more than he had that day, when the verdict came down that Stefan and his household of wicked sinners had won. It had brought undivided attention to Tony's agency, which had been more than a supplier of nannies. If you knew the right names, you could get yourself a very high priced call girl. Once that little tidbit had come out at the trial, Francis' long time business association had cost him his tenured position in the school, which had its roots in Cambridge and Eton.

For the last four years, Frances had been practically destitute, his family and social peers abroad having turned their backs on him because of the international scandal. Now he had nothing, and it was that dark haired bastard's fault. That dark haired devil who courted immortal damnation by his chosen lifestyle and was right now, across the way.

Francis burned for revenge. He hated Stefan Madara and Nathan Arashi with all his might and main. Not only had they taken from him everything that mattered, but they were what his peers in England would term 'new money'. Stefan's grandfather had been an immigrant from the slums of Japan, and Nathan, as everyone knew, came from poor Swedish parents, fresh from the boat.

God, how he hated them both. But until now, he'd been unable to penetrate the cloak of security both men had surround their damned family with since the trial. Well, both Stefan and Nathan were here, in his neck of the woods now, and there were no body guards, no gates, between them now.

"We must strike now, Tony," Francis said softly, eyes gleaming with vengeance. "Now, while they are here. And we can take out his other bastard son with both of them."

Tony frowned, straightening slowly. "And what of their harlot and hell spawn?"

"Once Stefan is gone, the Madaran empire will crumble. He's the last of his line, him and sons. Once the patriarch is gone, who will protect that slut they call a wife? Who will keep his son safe then? Nathan will be gone too. The bitch will have no one to protect her. It's time I say. Call your friends. We can get them all at once."

And Tony chuckled darkly, belly bouncing, as he reached for the phone.

Stefan wondered how he'd been pulled into this farce, and gave Nathan a dark look. Of course, the blonde man had insisted they allow 'Sasuke' to show them the proof he swore he had. Which had led them now to following his younger look alike down the twisting and winding labyrinthine canyons of downtown alleys. Stefan was glad he'd brought his gun. Not that he would need it, not after years of lessons by Naruto in her unique fighting style. But a little equalizer never hurt.

In due time, they came to the squalid and smelly alley that Sasuke had found himself in five weeks ago. And found a strange man standing leaning against the grimy brick walls.

Stefan's face twisted. He'd seen this man before, smoking his smelly joints on the street corner whenever he could, smiling like a fool and begging money as he strummed a battered guitar. The plot was thickening.

"Holy shit!" Shikamaru said, stunned. "Naruto, is that you?" Sure, the whiskers were missing, but a good coat of make up could achieve that. God, he looked so _old!_

"No," Sasuke snapped. "It's his counterpart. Naruto's not here. This is Nathan, and this here, is Stefan."

"Wow," Shikamaru said, looking Stefan up and down, nettling the older man. "Fuck, it really is weird how much they look like us."

"I'm glad your still here, Shikamaru. I was afraid you'd already made the rendezvous. You haven't, have you?" Sasuke asked, masking his anxiety. If the door had already opened, it would be another twelve days before it did so again, and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to have the two men here to see his proof.

Stefan was getting more and more angry. This plot was developing quickly. What rendezvous? Was this some sort of evil conspiracy to bring them down? 'Sasuke' wasn't the first to try and surely wouldn't be the last. His hand found the gun in his pocket.

"Madara," a voice at the mouth of the alley spoke up.

Sasuke turned sharply, and beheld the tall thin man standing just inside. "Who the hell are you?" He didn't need any interruptions right now.

"Francis Middlewaithe. I should have known." Stefan turned to Sasuke. "I see your plan now. In cahoots with this disenfranchised nobleman from England. Well, I won't let you destroy my family."

Francis walked closer, and the gun in his hand became apparent. "I don't know what you're talking about, Madara, and frankly, I don't care. I will kill you now, and this little bastard son of yours will take the blame, after dying right along with you and your freak of a boyfriend. I will have my revenge. And who will protect your little blonde slut and spawn after that? Hmmm? I think Tony probably has arrived with his friends at your compound by now."

"Bastard," Nathan snarled, staring down the skinny man fearlessly. "It's you who will die today. No one threatens our wife and children. No one!"

"Enough small talk," Francis smirked, gesturing with his gun. "I will kill you all now, and your little friends, and then I will go and see what's so wonderful about that blonde little woman that holds unredeemable faggots like you both in such thrall. She must be one hell of a fuck."

Everything happened at once. Stefan was drawing his gun as Francis fired, and Nathan screamed in denial, lunging forward. A bright green light flashed over their shoulders, startling the slim man, who shot again, wildly.

Stefan, knocked aside by Nathan, who grunted when he took the bullet meant for his husband, fell backwards, and found himself sprawled on the ground, the gun flying from his hand. The next shot grazed his temple, stunning him, and they were suddenly surrounded by strangely dressed people. Strangely dressed people who caught him, and drug him farther backwards.

He fought them, his eyes only seeing Nathan, laying on his side, a crimson stain growing on his flank, unmoving, his blue eyes flickering with pain. "Nathan!" he screamed, struggling wildly, but there were simply too many hands on him, and he was so damnably dizzy from the glancing shot to his brow.

Finally, the green light vanished. Stefan found himself alone, in a very strange place, and there was no sign of Nathan, or Sasuke.

He shook off his daze, and glared up, seeing both Jason and Suzanne staring at him. They were both dressed as strangely as the others. He was crushed to find they were a part of this vile conspiracy. Nathan would be desvastated. God, Nathan… he was hurt.

"I see you have crossed sides, Jason," he said in a surly tone, slowly getting to his feet. "It will kill Nathan to know you are involved. If he's not already dead, you bastard!"

"Calm down," Shikamaru said placidly. "They are not who you think they are, Madara."

"To hell with you all. I will not be a party to this. Take me back, damn you all. Nathan needs me. I don't have time for this!" Stefan fell into a crouch, looking even more like an older Sasuke. But when he lunged forward to attack, he found himself frozen in place.

Eyes rolling in shock, he saw Shikamaru, holding a strange pose, fingers poised in a very odd arrangement. He noticed that the shadow between them was long and thick, but didn't understand what that meant.

Shikamaru smirked. "I told you to calm down. Now you will have to listen to all you obviously haven't before. Oh, and by the way… Welcome to Konoha."


	8. Chapter 8

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 8

Everything was happening at once; the door opened, the stranger fired his gun, and Naruto's look alike went down hard, bleeding from the side. More shots were fired, chips of concrete flying up from Sasuke's feet. Dammit! What a time to have no chakra!

Thwarted by his inability to kill Stefan Madara, and slightly unhinged by a door opening from nowhere, Francis' wrath focused on the closest and most similar target; Sasuke Uchiha.

But even without his chakra, his shuriken and kunai, Sasuke was far from unarmed. He deftly flipped off the wall, unable to go any higher than waist level without chakra, but it was enough. He kept one step ahead of the lunatic, but barely. If only he could get close enough to strike! But despite Francis' growing madness, the man was still canny enough to keep his distance, and force Sasuke to keep his.

But Sasuke was running out of room. The alley was narrow and short, and dead ended in a pile of refuse and a high brick wall topped with concertina wire. He would soon be cornered. Taking this into consideration, Sasuke leapt up, dashed around the corner on the wall, and leapt to his feet. At the last second, a she cat, giving her kittens suck, flew up, yowling in rage and fright, right under Sasuke's feet.

Startled, hampered by the dirt and debris, and too closed in to be effective, he jumped awkwardly, coming down on a half rotted back of very old kitchen garbage. It slid under his feet, turning to slime, and Sasuke went down hard, almost stunning himself.

But it was the opening Francis needed. He loomed over the fallen boy, gun pointed close, and all Sasuke could see was the barrel. He'd seen enough TV and violence on these streets to know exactly what it was pointing at him, and what it could do to him.

"End of the line, boy," Francis gloated, and the gun cocked in his hands. "I will enjoy killing you, but not as much as I will enjoy killing your father when he comes back from wherever he went. And certainly not as much as I will when I kill that guttersnipe back at the compound and all her unholy whelps. Know this, and despair."

Francis was always a sucker from melodrama, and Sasuke could barely keep from rolling his eyes, despite his deadly situation.

There was a sharp retort, deafeningly loud, and Sasuke flinched.

It took a moment, but he realized he didn't hurt anywhere. And there was a look of such surprise on Francis' face. A red bud appeared on his chest, and began to blossom slowly. Jerkily, Francis turned, even as Sasuke took advantage of the situation to leap to his feet, and dance around the man, knocking the falling gun from his hand.

Nathan leaned shakily against the wall, his side stained in blood, oozing between the fingers of the hand held tightly there. His other hand was knotted around Stefan's lost gun.

Sasuke never looked back, even when he heard a soft whine coming from Francis' mouth, and the thud of his body hitting the filthy ground.

Sirens were wailing in the distance. Figures, they were never around when you really needed them, but showed up when things looked the worst.

Never slowing down, he grabbed the wounded blonde, and dragged him out of the alley.

A crowd was gathering; street punks, pimps with whores in tow, drug dealers, night crawlers blinking in the light of day. All watching them run out of the alley.

"Hey," one pimply faced young man, hair greasy, wearing a shredded and studded jacket, proudly emblazoned with his gang's name spoke up. "Aint that the famous blonde fag, Arashi? I 'member him from TV a few years ago!"

The two of them halted, surrounded by the worst sort of denizens of the streets.

"Heh, he's gorgeous alright. No wonder that rich Marada guy goes for him. I'd like a piece of him myself. And aint that his son? Sure is the spitting image of his dad."

"Who cares?" Another one cried. "Money has just walked into our midst, you guys. Let's get us some!"

The sirens drew closer, and Sasuke didn't know which was worse, the thugs bent on mayhem and robbery, or the police that would surely arrest them for the dead man in the alley behind them.

He snatched the gun from Nathan's shaking hand, and trained it on those around, holding it rock steady despite the dire situation. He'd been in worse before, and these little punks couldn't hold a candle to some of the foes he'd been up against before.

"Come on then, bastards," he snarled. "Not like I haven't killed before, and I would be happy to do so again."

They backed slowly away from them, but did not disperse. They scented blood in the water, and were like ravening sharks. Okay, they would need a demonstration. The gun fired, and a neat round hole appeared in the center of the forehead of the man that said he wanted a piece of Nathan. He dropped like a stone.

"Any other takers?"

They looked at the boy, whose black eyes burned with cold fire, whose hand never wavered, who'd just shot a man dead in cold blood.

And the sirens were almost upon them.

It was enough; they scattered to the winds. And as they ran away, Nathan was becoming heavier and heavier as blood loss began to take its toll. And through the vanishing bodies of their enemy, he could clearly see the flashing lights of the police cars screeching to a halt.

They would be caught.

"You! In here!"

Jerking his head to the side, Sasuke beheld a rather short boy with shoulder length dark blonde hair, dressed in clean if natty jeans and jacket, devoid of any words, waving them to a small door in the brick wall. Though he did not bear any resemblance whatsoever to Naruto, there was something in the way the boy held his small but stocky body, radiating fierce independence, that reminded Sasuke so very much of his own lost blonde lover.

"What, you want three hots and a cot? Come on!" Daringly, the boy reached out, grabbed the wrist that still held the gun, and drug both him and Nathan into a dark and dank smelling chamber. Then he quickly threw a bar across two notches in the door, effectively locking it.

"Come on, we need to get farther in. And your friend needs help. Looks like he's gonna pass out." The boy said calmly in the darkness of the windowless room. There was a click and a flashlight flared to life. "Oh, and put that gun away, before someone else gets shot."

Belatedly, Sasuke slipped the gun into his pocket, where he could feel the heated metal through the lining. Having nothing better to do, he followed.

"Hey, boy," Nathan rasped softly. "What's your name?"

"David."

"Thanks, David," Nathan repeated, and Sasuke faintly echoed the sentiment.

It seemed like an eternity, but finally they'd come to a nest of sorts. Obviously where this David boy made his home. Under his direction, Sasuke eased Nathan onto the ancient and stained mattress covered with a thin natty blanket.

Hissing, Nathan lifted his blood stained shirt and examined the wound which was bleeding sluggishly. "Fuck, that hurts. Never been shot before," Nathan gave a strained laugh.

Sasuke looked over the injury himself, and drew in a shaky breath. It was a deep but short gash in the man's side. Sure, he'd lost a lot of blood, and would lose more if something wasn't done, but he wasn't about to die. God, he looked so much like Naruto that he didn't know what he would do if the man died. Besides, in a round about way, this _was _Naruto. This world's Naruto anyway. Just as the Stefan that fell through the door, and was undoubtedly freaking out in Konoha, was this world's version of himself. If they didn't have Naruto, he would be very interested in them indeed.

"Dude, you need to see a doctor!" David exclaimed in dismay.

"Can't," Nathan panted. "Have to get home. My wife, my children, they need me." He turned to give an almost eerie look at his dark haired companion. "They need us, isn't that so, Sasuke?"

"Listen, Mister, I really think you should go to the hospital, and…"

"I can do it."

Both Nathan and David looked at Sasuke.

"I said, I can do it. I've given stitches before, and not just to myself."

"That's right," Nathan said softly, looking away. "You're a shinobi."

"A what?" David asked curiously. "Isn't that like a ninja or something?"

"Or something," Sasuke snorted. "Got any needles, any thread?" He highly doubted it.

The boy shrugged. "Yeah, I do have needles and thread, believe it or not."

He reached past Nathan and pulled up a back pack that had seen better days. Digging inside it, he pulled out a very old little sewing packet. "My mom always believed in being ready for anything. Said we were always tearing something, and so we should be able to fix it on the go, at least until we could get home, and she could do it for real. She kinda taught me to sew." There was a melancholy note in the boy's voice. "Oh, wait…"

David jumped up again, rummaged in a box by the mattress and drew out a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "Think you'll need this too."

Sasuke nodded curtly, and in a moment had swabbed the wound. Nathan made a choking sound as the alcohol burned right down to the bone. "FUCK!"

"Sorry," Sasuke said softly, and before Nathan could react, had begun to sew up the bloody wound with quick, small, very efficient stitches.

Nathan grit his teeth, gave an occasional yowl, and knew he had to take his mind off what was happening.

"David," he panted, wanting to scream with pain. It felt like Sasuke was tearing out his side with an iron poker. "Tell me about yourself. You seem… damn! Seem like a nice enough boy. What the hell are you doing here? You homeless?"

The boy shook his head, carefully not looking at what Sasuke was doing. The first glance had made him queasy. "No. This is just where I come when I need to be alone, which, sadly to say, I feel all the time. I just don't like to be home anymore. Not since Dad got remarried."

"I'm sorry, ah, to hear that," Nathan wheezed. God, would Sasuke never be done? What was he doing, making a quilt? "Where's your mom?"

"She's in Texas. Dad wont let me see her. Cause he knows she'll take me back. He kinda stole me from her after the divorce. His new wife suggested he get welfare for me, even though he really isn't entitled, but the state doesn't seem to care. Mom does though. And now, Dad's afraid she wont give me back if I visit, and he'll lose all that money. And my step mom. She's a real bitch, pardon my French."

He gave a hollow grin, and pulled a battered little tin from the packpack, emblazoned with the intials FMA. "But I'll see her soon. I've been taking odd jobs here and there, so he wont notice. He always takes the money I get for birthdays and Christmas and stuff. Says its because he doesn't want me to lose it, but funny thing is, I never see it again. It's been five years now, and I've never gotten a penny of it back. But I'm not helpless. My mom taught me that. I've been saving, see?"

Opening the tin, he showed them a wad of bills and several handsful of coins. "Just a little bit longer, and I'll have enough. I'll go to Texas, and never come back."

Sasuke, wordlessly coming to the end of his little human tailoring, couldn't help but smile a little. The boy, obviously not a street punk, had a lot of pluck. He wished he could help him.

David reached up and rubbed the back of his head, cheeks flushed. "Don't know why I'm telling you all this. Not like you need to know all my troubles on top of your own."

Sasuke, finally finished, tore a generous strip off his undershirt, folded it, and then tore off another, which he then bound around Nathan's side.

Nathan sighed with relief.

There was a pop and a hiss, and David suddenly thrust a can of warm orange soda under Nathan's nose. "Here, drink this, it'll help. My mom used to donate blood from time to time, whenever there was a drive. They always gave her orange juice to drink afterwards. I know it's not OJ, but it's the best I can do."

"Why did you help us, David?" Sasuke asked, wiping his hands off on the remains of his undershirt, leaving streaks of blood.

David shrugged. "I dunno. It seemed like the right thing to do. I usually don't get involved. I leave everyone here alone, and they do the same to me, so I really have no answer. Just kinda felt like I had to, you know?"

Nathan chugged the soda without stopping, ignoring the burn down his throat. He gasped when he was done, hiccupped, and then belched loudly. "Damn, sorry about that." He set the can down with shaky fingers and got slowly to his feet. "Thank you, David. You've been more help than you can possibly know. But we really have to go. My wife and kids are in danger now. But first…"

Steadying himself on Sasuke's suddenly offered hand, he dug out his wallet, opened it, and took out all the money inside. He thrust it into David's startled hands. "Here, take this. And don't go home, kid. Go right to the bus station, and get your ticket. Go to your mom. Don't let another day pass. Go home while you have the chance."

"Dude, you don't have to do that!" He exclaimed. "I didn't do this for money, you know. Felt it was laid on me, like my old pastor used to say when Mom was still around, and we went to church every Sunday."

"I know, son, I know," Nathan said softly. "But this is laid on me too. Go home. Get your mom. Be happy. Please."

He stared at Sasuke, blue eyes burning with determination. "Let's get Naruto and the kids."

Sasuke nodded silently. And the two men quickly walked out of the old abandoned warehouse.

They never saw David again, but after the boy got over the shock of realizing that the handsome blonde man had given him close to four thousand dollars, he did go home. Where his mother met him with tears of joy, after so many years, and though they didn't live happily ever after, they did live as happily as they could.

Once out on the streets, carefully avoiding the police still roaming the area, they made it to a parking lot. There, to Sasuke's surprise, Nathan found an unlocked vehicle, and proceeded to hotwire it.

"What," the blonde man grinned. "I wasn't born rich, you know."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Do they have cars in Konoha?" Nathan asked.

"You believe me?"

"I saw the green door, Sasuke. I saw what looked like my aunt, but wasn't. I saw… I don't know what I saw. But I believe. They… they won't hurt Stefan, will they?" He asked anxiously.

Something unknotted in Sasuke's chest. "No," he said softly. "They won't hurt him. They… we… just want Naruto back."

And Nathan looked away. Silently, he got in the driver's seat, and waited until Sasuke climbed in beside him.

He drove a little erratically, but not dangerously so, and the police were too busy looking elsewhere at the moment to notice.

"I won't give her up without a fight, you know," Nathan said softly, clear out of the blue. "She's my wife. The mother of my children."

"I know," Sasuke said hollowly. "I know."

They spoke not another word, until they'd left the city behind, and found themselves nearing Nathan's property.

Finally, they started on the long drive into the heart of the compound, after Nathan punched in the right security code.

"Slow down, those 'friends' that the man mentioned might be here," Sasuke ordered softly, drawing the gun from his pocket once more.

"Do you smell smoke?" Nathan said suddenly, as he did indeed slow down. Nothing could be seen through the thick trees that blanketed the compound property.

"Yeah. Stop the car. Something's not right."

Hiding the stolen car behind a small thicket, Sasuke and Nathan walked, or rather, Nathan slightly limped through the trees towards the main house. The smell of smoke and burning plastic grew stronger, and gray wisps were seeping through the forest.

Peeking through the trees, Nathan felt as if turned to stone. The beautiful house, where his wife and children had been, was a raging inferno. Several unkempt men laughed and cavorted by its dancing light and were drinking what Nathan recognized as the very old, very expensive scotch from Stefan's bar.

"Okay, boys!" A very fat man sang, belly jiggling obscenely. "Time to go. The fire department will be here any moment. Let's take our… guests… back. I'm sure that Frank's done his work, and is waiting for us. There will be more booze and money, I promise you."

The men calmed down, and to both Sasuke and Nathan's horror, in a huddle sat Naruto and two children.

_Naruto… at last…_

Sasuke didn't care that his lover had the delicate and lovely features of a woman; Naruto had always been outrageously beautiful, even in his horrific orange jumpsuit. He didn't care that instead of that smooth hairless well muscled chest, Naruto sported a pair of generous breasts. He didn't care that the smudged and torn pants held not a penis but a vagina. He didn't care about any of that. Naruto was Naruto. And Naruto was here, finally.

His fists clenched. Damn bastards. Even from his vantage point, Sasuke could see a darkening bruise on Naruto's temple. Probably how they got the drop on the dobe. He would kill them, down to the last man, for touching Naruto and her children. Kill them all.

Beside him, Nathan was silently echoing his enraged sentiments. The cold knot in his gut made him carefully assess his family's demeanor and state of attire. They were scared, but still defiant, even little Narue. And though their clothing was torn and dirty, they didn't appear to be too badly roughed up, or worse, raped. Still…

"They will die, all of them," he whispered fiercely.

"Yes," Sasuke replied, his voice as cold as ice. "Every last one of them."

Suddenly, little Narue's head turned, and she stared right into her father's blue eyes, piercing shield of leaf and branch. She saw, and knew.

"Daddy's here," she whispered softly to her mother.

Naruto didn't even blink. Sometimes her daughter was funny that way; knowing and sensing things she shouldn't be able to.

"Can you fight?" Sasuke asked Nathan, unaware of what had just happened.

Nathan nodded. "Just watch and learn, little boy. Naruto taught me everything I know."

"In that case, dobe, I guess you can't," Sasuke smirked, then paused, shocked.

For a moment, he'd forgotten whom he was talking to, responding to Nathan as he would have Naruto.

He resisted the urge to cough in embarrassment. "Are you up to it?" He asked, looking away.

Nathan was surprised as well. Back when Naruto was more forthcoming about her past, before all the denials and fights and shrinks, she'd told them that dobe was Sasuke's pet name for her.

"Yeah," he said softly. "My side hurts like a bitch, but you're a great field medic. I'll be fine. Lets go get our Naruto." The confusion was a two way street. Sasuke was so very much like Stefan had been, back when their love affair was new, and they were just getting started together. God, it was like looking at the past.

"Our?"

He gestured wildly with his hands, so very Naruto like. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I think I do."


	9. Chapter 9

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 9

Despite the fire raging nearby, the rough and noisy, rather drunk men stumbling around, a gorgeous butterfly fluttered past, lighting on Narue's shoulder for a second, antennae quivering, tickling her cheek. It was like the softest whisper of silk over satin, and Narue gave a tender smile.

She gave a tiny shrug, not enough to dislodge her graceful visitor, and hummed so softly, no one would have ever heard her.

And the butterfly fluttered away, weaving it's graceful way near the trees that girdled the smoothly paved drive to the gates. Narue turned her head, as if to watch, and could sense her Daddy close boy. Close by and filled with rage.

She turned to her mother, already pressed to the woman's side, and hid her face in Naruto's short and disheveled hair.

"Daddy's here," she whispered.

Naruto's face never changed, but the gentle shift against the little girl's body let Narue know her mother heard and understood. She was such a wonderful Mommy. Her little friends and fellow playmates at the daycare always scoffed at her woodsy tales. Even her fathers would smile gently at her, but she could tell they thought she was playing make believe. But Mommy never did. Mommy understood. Mommy believed.

Just like Narue knew that Mommy had tales of her own, though she'd never breathed a word of them to her daughter. But Narue was uncommonly wise despite her youth, with a vocabulary that staggered even the high priced teachers at her Papa's special school, which she attended just like her brother. Thus, when she'd overheard her fathers talking occasionally to each other, about Naruto's 'fits', she slowly but surely pieced the tale together, and understood. And as Mommy understood and believed in her, so too did Narue understand and believe in Mommy.

And knowing her Mommy had once been a little boy, like Daddy and Papa so long ago, like Sasuke now, didn't phase her one bit. Just as having two fathers, passionately in love with each other, didn't phase her. Just like having three loving parents instead of only two didn't phase her. It just made her life all the more richer, more sweet than the unfortunate kids at the school, for all their holier than thou attitudes. Despite how much their little comments and digs rankled, she felt sorry for them. Her life was so much more colorful and beautiful than theirs.

And though Mommy couldn't use any of the powers she'd been born with, in that other world she'd come from, because of something missing, something called chakra, Narue knew she'd inherited something special because of it. And even when she was by herself; when Mommy was busy, when Daddy and Papa were at work, when Sasuke was in school, Narue was never alone.

There wasn't a bug or a bird, a butterfly or moth, a squirrel or groundhog or woodchuck or mole, a deer or dog or cat that she wasn't intimately acquainted with. Sort of on a first name basis with. These were more her friends than the children of her acquaintance that thought they were so much better than her, just because she had two fathers that like to touch and kiss each other, and three parents.

Idiots. All of them. They didn't know what they were missing. Narue couldn't wait until she grew up and could have two loving husbands of her own. Just like Mommy and Daddy and Papa.

But Narue couldn't let such thoughts distract her now. Daddy was close by. Close by and watching, and waiting until he could save them. And so she let her senses flare wide.

Sasuke, on the other side of Naruto, gave an almost imperceptible jerk. He could feel Narue's mind reaching out; he'd always been sensitive to his sister's sometimes odd brainwaves. Reaching around their mother's back, he touched his sister's hand and somehow, he knew.

Daddy was here.

Sasuke's black eyes brightened. They had a chance now. Daddy would save them. Mommy couldn't do it alone, not with all these horrible men.

But… where was Papa? Concern gnawed on his brain.

"Alright, you whore, get up. Get your hell spawn up and get moving. We're leaving. Say goodbye to your little den of iniquity, and while you're at it, to those fags you call husbands. They are probably quite dead by now." The obese man laughed raucously, the fat spilling off his body quivering with his mirth.

Naruto's eyes narrowed; she trusted her daughter implicity. _Shows how much you know, fat man._

Suddenly, Tony yelped, and slapped at his neck, face turning red. But the bee that had stung him buzzed away, and Narue felt a sorrowful regret. Her bee would soon die without his stinger. She couldn't bear to have her little friends die on her behalf.

The other men were pleasantly buzzed on Stefan's twenty year old scotch, but Tony hadn't touched a drop. He'd planned to drink himself into a stupor afterwards. And he'd noticed something strange.

The surrounding forest was now deathly silent.

Shit, he didn't have time for this.

"I said get up, you bitch!" He reached out, roughly caught Naruto's upper arm, and hauled her to her feet.

And Naruto got up alright. And exploded into fury the moment she was on her feet.

Yeah, Naruto was a girl now, had been for almost two decades. And yeah, she'd been a housewife for most of them, and a mother for over half of them. But that had never stopped her from training. Sure, she couldn't train with chakra, but she did keep her body hard and tight and whipcord strong. To her husbands' everlasting appreciations. She trained herself, and like the good shinobi she would always be, no matter where she was, she'd started to train her children too.

Now that she knew Nathan was close by, and waiting, she could act. And though more than a decade had passed since she'd last resorted to this sort of violence, she still remembered all the moves, the kicks and jabs and punches. And she reacted accordingly.

Exhilaration she hadn't felt in sixteen years coursed through her body. She was almost high on the giddy pleasure of feeling like a shinobi again. But sadly, Tony was no fit enemy for her. He went down with a garbled bark of pain after the first punch, his jaw shattered.

"Run to the woods!" She screamed to her children. They, especially Narue, would find a safe haven there. And hopefully they would run right into Nathan's waiting arms.

Well trained, as Naruto had made sure they were should such a disaster as this arise, both Narue and Sasuke were up and bolting towards the drive.

But the dozen or so men Tony had brought, despite their slight inebriation, were on them like flies on stink.

Naruto's next opponent was taller, slimmer, and much stronger than Tony, and had honed his battle skills on the crime ridden streets of the city. She gave a feral grin and threw herself into the fray. God, yes, it felt so damn good!

But another man, running at an angle, intercepted the children as they ran to the woods beside the driveway. He was so intent on recapturing them, he didn't even notice Sasuke and Nathan explode from the kids' obvious destination point.

He caught Narue's long silken blonde hair, and jerked her right off her feet, eliciting a surprised shriek of pain.

"Roo!" Younger Sasuke screamed. A second later, the man had folded up, choking in pain as he clutched his groin. In a true shinobi move, he'd crouched down, leapt back up like a coiled spring, and had slammed his small but very hard fist right into the man's most sensitive bits. Konoha would have been proud.

A shinobi trained ten year old can hit very hard indeed, as the poor unfortunate man discovered. Sadly, though this man would survive this fracas, he would never sire children again.

The other men, diverging into two groups; one to subdue the whirling dervish of death that Naruto had become, and the other on the children being joined by adult reinforcements, were suddenly hampered by a skyful of screaming, clawing birds; of all colors and species.

But little Sasuke didn't care about any of that. He dove down, and caught up his sister in his arms, and pulled her close to his chest. "Roo, are you alright?"

Sasuke and Nathan were beside them now, and the sounds of thudding flesh, snapping bones, and screams of rage and pain were like a cacophony in her ears.

It had comforted Narue to know the men she loved and depended on would kill to protect her, but it was not at all comforting to be in the midst of it.

"Sauce," She whimpered softly, the only one with permission to call her brother that, "I'm scared."

Younger Sasuke flinched, cried out, and bowed over Narue's body. His shoulder had just been kicked, hard, by one of the men now desperately fighting for their lives.

Suddenly, the man that had kicked Sasuke screamed, and was lifted up and away. Nathan had caught him on one side with a furious punch for harming his child, even as the dark, strange boy smashed him in the face.

Realizing the danger they were in, Sasuke shrugged off his pain, and leapt to his feet, taking his little sister with him. Then he yelped, when a boy, looking so much like his Papa, the one from the barbeque, suddenly picked Narue up and placed her piggy back upon her brother.

The youngest Sasuke didn't need any prompting. The moment little Narue's arms went around his neck, he wheeled around and galloped for all he was worth into the safety of the forest, literally haloed in a cloud of shrieking birds, which had abandoned the fight in favor of surrounding the two children in their flight.

Panting, Naruto wheeled back to the fight, seeing Narue and Sasuke had reached the sanctuary of the forest, only to find the fight was over. The few men that weren't seriously hurt, or worse, dead, had fled themselves.

Adrenaline still pumping through her body, she had to squelch a spurt of disappointment. By god, that had felt so damn good! She hadn't had the joy of such a glorious fight in so many years.

The wailing of sirens in the distance, was heard in the now quieter lawn.

"The fire department," Nathan panted. His face was a rictus of pain, and he was clutching his side, which had started bleeding again, even worse than before.

"Nathan!" Naruto cried, horrified, not yet realizing who was with her husband. She took several half running steps, before they faltered.

_Sasuke?_

But it couldn't be. This boy had to be another hideous trick this world tended to play on her. Her heart lurched painfully. God, he looked so much like her long lost Sasuke. She hoped the boy would go away, and soon. She couldn't take this haunting pain. Seeing Stefan every day had been hard enough at first. But her older, darker husband was now a very mature man, and this male was the spitting image of the boy she'd lost so long ago. She hated the very sight of him.

Nathan gave another groan of pain, and fell to his knees, so dizzy he thought he might faint.

Naruto dismissed the haunting boy with difficulty and finished running to her husband's side, falling to her knees as well, and running hands over his body.

"Nathan, my god, you're hurt!" She gasped, staring down at the blood on her hands, appalled.

"I'm okay, sweetheart. God, look at you!" Nathan said mournfully, lightly touching the bruise on the side of her brow. "Those fucking bastards hit you. Damn them!" Then he kissed her.

"Oh, god, Nathan," Naruto suddenly burst into tears. The high of the fight had abruptly waned when she realized her blonde husband was badly hurt, and the fright of not knowing if she could protect the children, and the sight of the accursed boy that just stood four feet away, and stared at her destroyed any peace of mind she might have somehow scrapped up.

"Shhh, baby, it'll be okay. Don't cry, Naruto. The kids are safe, I'll be alright, and Stefan, well…" Everything was happening too fast, and he was so damn dizzy. The sirens drew closer. Nathan knew they'd reached the gate at the drive, and would soon open it with their pass keys. They would be here soon, and find a burning house, dead and wounded men littering the lawn, and they would have questions that Nathan wasn't sure he had, or could even begin to answer. Not to mention, he'd been seen and recognized leaving the scene of a murder, and for all he knew, they would all be arrested as soon as those sirens reached them.

"Naruto, honey, we have to go." He panted urgently.

"But, Nathan, you're hurt!" She cried, still ignoring the boy that seemed frozen in his tracks.

"Yeah, but how the hell will we explain this. I killed a man today. And I was seen doing it." Nathan said, his words beginning to slur. "We have to go, Naruto. Now."

She bit her lip, stunned to hear that her gentle blonde husband had killed someone, and worse, been seen. But he must have had a very good reason. Nathan cherished life, mostly. Only when they threatened those he held dear, would he resort to bloodthirsty violence. Suddenly the realization that Stefan wasn't here, and Nathan had killed a man, struck her like a blow to the gut.

With a gasp, she lurched to her feet, taking Nathan with her, and staggered towards the woods, where the children had vanished, well away from the driveway, and detection.

"Where's Stefan," she asked urgently, trying to ignore the boy that had finally begun to follow them. "Nathan!" She lurched to the side, jarring him. "Where's Stefan?" She repeated frantically.

But Nathan had reached the end of his rope. The blood was hot against his side and thigh. "Safe…" he mumbled, only half conscious. "Safe… Sas'ke said was safe… Safe…" And his head dropped and he became dead weight on Naruto's side.

The boy, that hateful, dreadful boy, suddenly stepped up and took Nathan's other side, helping her bear him into the forest. As the leaves closed around them, Naruto was startled to notice tears streaking that young, haunting face.

It felt like a long nightmarish trek though the woods. The boy on the other side of her unconscious husband was utterly silent, though his face had now dried and was set in hard lines. But Naruto had a very good idea where Narue and Sasuke were. Long ago, this had been a prosperous farm. But the farmers, when the city had encroached too closely, had sold out, and moved to sparser pastures. Though the farmhouse and most of the out buildings had long ago been torn down, there was a cow byre or two that still existed, leaning drunkenly on half rotted posts. Naruto had often taken refuge from sudden storms while training nearby, and the children were very fond of playing in them. Not that Naruto had ever felt comfortable with that, having visions of collapsed roofs and crushed little bodies. But naturally, the children had politely nodded their heads, and went and played there sometimes anyway.

And she was right. Almost an hour after their escape, the vine encrusted hovel came into view down the path, and Narue and Sasuke both flew towards them. There was no sign of the birds.

Gasping with effort, Naruto and her silent companion half dragged Nathan inside, and eased him back onto a pile of ancient hay, topped by an old frayed blanket Sasuke had dragged in there weeks ago.

The first thing Naruto did, was lift his blood soaked shirt, removed the bloodstained make shift bandage, and gave a soft cry to see the mended wound, neatly stitched, but now half torn open again. And once more, clothing fell prey to the need for bandages. She wished heartily she had her first aid kit, but it was likely nothing more than ashes and melted plastic by now. But she wouldn't let that stop her from taking care of her stricken husband.

At first Narue and Sasuke were nearly frantic to see their strong blonde father so still and pale, his natural tan washed away because of his injury, and Narue had almost been in hysterics. But Naruto was able to tell them, with no little relief, that though it had bled terribly, it was nothing more than a deep and bloody scrape. Dangerous, but not life threatening. Their Daddy would be alright.

Assured by her mother that her daddy would survive, she felt pain of another sort, radiating outwards from a darkened corner of the rickety byre. Sasuke, after sending the familiar boy a dark, yet curious look, couldn't take his eyes off his wounded parent. He was anxious, despite his Mama's words. But Narue, she felt the tugging on her heart, when she glanced over and saw that the boy had retreated to a far corner, had sunk down onto his rear, and bowed his head against his jean clad knees. His body positively radiated crushing grief.

She skittered over to him, and wrinkled her nose, noticing not only was he splashed with blood, but he bore a striking resemblance to her Papa and brother, and was indeed, the boy from the picture she still kept crumpled against her chest in her shirt pocket.

Sasuke felt the girl child, Naruto's daughter, looming over him, but he didn't care. About anything. His heart was crushed in his breast. Watching Naruto kiss and touch another man, even Nathan, her own biological double, had wounded him to the core. Especially after she had all but ignored him. But she'd seen him, she realized who he was; he saw it in her eyes before Nathan dropped to his knees. But she'd… ignored him, like he wasn't even there. Sasuke felt such pain he thought it would kill him.

After everything he'd been through; the murder of his family, the horrors of Orochimaru and Sound, the painfully hollow triumph of finally killing his brother and avenging his clan and it's ensuing guilty grief, the year and a half without Naruto… And now, he'd finally found his lost blonde lover, his reason for being.

_And Naruto acted as if he wasn't even there!_

There was a rustle, and suddenly something warm and soft was pressed to his side. It took all Sasuke's will not to shove the little girl away. God, Naruto… right across the way from him, acting as if he didn't exist; Nathan, looking more like Naruto than anyone had a right to, enjoying her kisses and touches and concern; and this little female Naruto clone, his lover's child by another man. Fuck, wasn't his heart bleeding enough?

"You're hurting," Narue said softly, almost crooning.

Sasuke shrugged without lifting his head. "I'm fine. The blood's not mine." His voice was cold and curt.

Narue shook her head, dirty blonde hair flying; even Sasuke could see that from under his arms. "I know, but you're hurting… right here."

And to Sasuke's horror, the girl nudged his head up, his arms down, and pressed her hand right against his chest, where the shattered remains of his heart cracked and bled.

She peeked up into his eyes, and suddenly, her own widened. "You're Sasuke, aren't you? My Mommy's Sasuke, not my brother."

Sasuke stilled. How could she know that? Had Naruto told her? "Yeah," he whispered. "I was…"

Narue's little brow wrinkled. Just like Naruto's would, when he was in deep thought. Sasuke fought off a wave of tears.

Narue stared at her mother for a long time, making her brother twitch and glance at her briefly. Narue turned back, and gave him a hesitant smile.

"She doesn't believe in you. She thinks you're someone sent by this world to torment her. She doesn't realize it's really you. But it is really you, isn't it?" She dug into the pocket of her shirt, and then shyly offered him the half crushed picture.

Sasuke took it, numbly. And recognized it as one of the pictures Nathan had stolen from him yesterday. He wondered dully how she'd come by it. Surely her father hadn't just given it to her. It was the last thing any sane man would do with a picture of his rival with his lover.

But then again, Nathan was Naruto. And when push came to shove, Naruto could be wildly unpredictable.

He recrushed the picture in his fist. What good were pictures but tangible ghosts to haunt him for what he'd lost and would never have again.

"Hey, Sasuke," Narue whispered conspiratorially. "Don't be sad. My Mommy loves you… so much. Even after all the years she's waited for you, and all the years she's thought you would never come. She loves you. She loves you like my Papa and Daddy love each other. She dreams of being with you, and being a boy again, in the woods that surround a very strange city. She dreams of you, every night. She has for weeks now."

Sasuke blinked. Naruto… had been waiting for him? All this time?

But of course. Sasuke had always come and saved him, just as the blonde had always been there for him. Naruto had been waiting, at first in despair, then in vain, for eighteen years.

"Narue, go sit with your brother," Naruto's higher pitched voice was almost cold.

Narue gave Sasuke a last encouraging smile, and then scampered away.

Naruto squatted down on her haunches before Sasuke, and stared at him, her face cold and determined, but her eyes filled with anguish.

"Just who the hell are you?" She asked, her equally cold voice threaded with pain.

Sasuke tipped his head back, staring into her beloved, endlessly blue eyes, as his own spilled over with tears.

"Naruto…" he choked out, the picture, half facing outwards, crinkling in his tightening fist.

Naruto was turned to stone. Those eyes, that face, that voice! And... and... that picture.. in the boy's hand… she could see a goodly portion of it. Enough to recognize it completely. It was the most recent one of them both, after Sasuke had told them they would marry, no matter what the council might say. It had last resided, to her knowledge, on Sasuke Uchiha's nightstand, framed in silver. In Konoha. Naruto himself had paid to have it put together so nicely, just a month before he'd been pulled into this world. Sasuke had smiled, thanked him with his eyes, and set it on the nightstand where it had remained ever since. And then, he'd taken Naruto into his arms, and made love to him so tenderly. Even after all these years, Naruto remembered the endless orgasms Sasuke had given him that night.

That face, that voice, those eyes, that picture, god, the very scent of him…

God, please, please don't let this be another dream, another haunting, another delusion! Please, god, let this, let him, be real.

"S…Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was faint, torn between frightened disbelief, and wild, desperate hope. "Sasuke… is... is that really you? But… you're so young!"

Sasuke reached out with a shaking hand, and softly stroked Naruto's shock paled and bewhiskered cheek. "Time moves faster here than in Konoha. I've been looking for you for so long. Naruto… Koi… I've missed you so much."

Naruto gave a gasp, a whimper, and was suddenly in his arms, their lips locked together.

Sasuke was drowning; god, so quickly. Naruto's mouth was warmer and sweeter than he'd remembered. And she was crushed to Sasuke's chest, hard and wiry, yet soft and yielding. Tongues tangled, hands gripped and stroked, and both were dizzy with overwhelming desire. They writhed together in the endless, wet kiss, until Naruto was lying on her back, Sasuke half covering her body, and she felt the wondrous dig of a hard cock against her hip. Then a hand found its way blindly under her torn and blood dotted shirt, and cupped one generous breast, thumb brushing fervently across a stiffening nipple.

To Sasuke, it felt wildly strange, this large and firm globe beneath his hand, so very unlike Naruto's smooth, well muscled chest from before. He shifted more fully above her, sliding into the cradle of her body, and he pressed down with his hips, and met a groin that didn't pulse back up against his, but simply yielded more fully to him, radiating moist heat he could feel even through both their pants. But Sasuke didn't care. This was Naruto, his Naruto, at long last. In his arms, under his aching body, and in his mouth, wet and sweet, deliciously submissive to his aggressive passion.

As for Naruto, her head spun. God, Sasuke, warm, alive, _here!_ His body weighed fully upon hers, hard and insistent between her legs. His mouth was ravaging hers even more hungrily than she remembered from the distant past. His scent, so familiar, so delicious, drugged her senses, as his hands danced upon her body, tugging at her shirt and pants, seeking an entrance to the pleasure both of them remembered so well, and yearned for so much.

And in a distant, hazed corner of her brain, the catalogued all the differences between his well remembered touch, and that of her tall dark husband, Stefan.

The haze abruptly departed. As much as she wanted this, yearned for this, had dreamed of this, it couldn't happen. She jackknifed, almost throwing Sasuke off her body.

Sasuke fall back, panting, eyes glazed, his lips and chin glistening with saliva, and he scrabbled a moment to seize her again, and then noticed the river of silver tears that had suddenly overflowed pain clouded eyes, and began to drip off that gently rounded, quivering chin.

And that quiver was as effective against Sasuke as it ever had been against Stefan. A moment later, he stilled, hateful clarity settling on his mind and brushing away the cobwebs of passion.

Naruto wasn't his. Not anymore. No matter how much he wanted her to be, how much she obviously wanted to be again, she still wasn't his anymore. She belonged to other men. The two silver rings on the fourth fingers of each hand now knotted below her chin, glinted accusingly up at him; badges of her status as other men's wife. He'd never realized, nor paid attention to the identical set that had rested on the same fingers of the now unconscious Nathan.

Married. With not one, but two husbands. And children. And utterly beyond his reach now.

Still breathing harshly, still excited from the moment of blind passion, Sasuke lowered his head, and struggled not to give way to the tears that burned in his once more fracturing heart, as Naruto had.

There was a horrible, endless moment of utter silence, broken only boy the rushed breath both still experienced. Naruto's head dropped forward, that wild mop of blonde hair hiding her stricken face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered brokenly.

The raw pain of her aching heart, burning with the knowledge of what lay between them now, threaded through with multiple layers of guilt and regret, struck Sasuke like a blow. With a shaking hand, he took one of hers, and felt the cold metal of the ring upon her finger.

"It's okay," he said hoarsely replied, even though it really wasn't, and never would be. But what could he say? She'd waited years for him. Waited even though she knew he would never come for her. Waited while years and years and years had passed, until she had no more hope, but only a gnawing ache deep in her heart.

And then his tears came, as silently and remorselessly as the sunset.


	10. Chapter 10

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 10

Stefan gripped the iron railing of the balcony, unseeing eyes staring at the night darkened city below him. Instead of blazing up at him with the millions of lights of his own city, it twinkled gently, like a blanket of soft stars.

And though he tried to deny the evidence of his own eyes, he couldn't. This wasn't his city, nor any city under the sun of his world. And the moon that shown down from on high, round and so very familiar, wasn't his moon. It didn't shine down on any city that he'd ever known in his life before. It shone down on an utterly alien landscape, and people he'd never met before in his life, though they bore teasingly familiar faces. This wasn't his world.

It was Naruto's.

He'd been almost wildly resistant at first. Everything flew in the face of the cold logic by which he'd always lived his life. But slowly, relentlessly, it crept into his heart. These people, this Tsunade and Jiraiya; they weren't Suzanne and Jason. Though they bore the same faces and bodies, there were little hints; the way they moved were just a fraction differently than the couple he knew as Nathan's adoptive parents. It was in the gleam of identical eyes, similar mannerisms. These weren't the people he'd known for years and years.

And he'd met many other people, in this fantastically surreal day since he found himself lost to his own world as utterly as Naruto had this one. Neji Hyuuga; his large milky white eyes almost identical to the blind, unseeing ones of a junior partner in the Madara law firm; Nicholas Handerson. The man had been vociferous in his iron clad, air tight defense during the trial four years ago. This Neji had the same unyielding determination, but those blind looking eyes could see beyond that of normal men. He'd taken one look at Stefan's body, fleshy veins rising around those milky orbs, and the young man had told him almost in a bored voice how he saw the once broken bone in his lower leg; gotten from a fight over Nathan when they were both still boys, and the fact that Stefan was no longer able to sire children; his vasectomy.

And Shikamaru; he might be the identical counterpart of the matured drug abuser back home, but if marijuana had ever touched this boy's lungs, well, Stefan was the duck his hair so resembled.

And the things they could do. Neji's eyes for one, those terrible all seeing eyes. Shikamaru's ability to lock him into place with just a shadow. There was a girl here, with pink hair, that looked just like a strawberry blonde head nurse in Suzanne's clinic; but this girl's hands would glow green, and bones would knit, and wounds would seal with miraculous speed.

Stefan's being was rocked to his very foundations.

Now he stared almost blindly down on the world below him, and didn't see it. He was consumed with guilt. He'd been shown, rather forcefully one might add, all the signs that Naruto had never suffered from delusions, had never been mentally unbalanced. He'd never believed her, never really listened. He'd denied her. He'd betrayed her trust in him, when she'd shyly and so hopefully finally revealed all her secrets to him. He'd repudiated that trust, spit in the face of her gentle confession, and subjected her to the cold world of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

He shuddered. It was a wonder that Naruto didn't hate him with every fiber of her being. But Naruto had forgiven him, from her bottomless heart. He's reaped the benefits of the blonde's boundless giving nature. A nature that was fiercely reflected in the people around him. As much as Naruto, and her counterpart, Nathan, had affected him, so too she… or rather he, Stefan corrected himself harshly, affected the people the blonde had grown up with. From the lofty seat of national leadersthip, Tsunade, to the youngsters that had crowded around him earlier, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon, clamoring for whatever tidbits he could give them about their missing comrade.

Young and old, rich and poor, powerful and weak, Naruto had affected and been loved by them all. As he was now, as a woman, in Stefan's world. And each and every one of them, voiced the desire, the intention, of getting said blonde back.

The understanding that Naruto had been locked in his sexy no jutsu form for eighteen years had totally stunned the Konohans. Stefan had heard them voice their shock and disbelief that Naruto had been a female for so long. A woman, a mother… and a wife. Over this endless day, Stefan had seen the surprise in the faces of so many, surprise, that in not a few men, turned to interested speculation.

Naruto, like Nathan, was arousing and appealing to both sexes; even those that were unremittingly heterosexual. In the years they'd been together Stefan had been forced to warn off, sometimes quite heatedly, men that had never lain with another man, and wouldn't have even dreamed of it, had they not met Nathan. Just as Naruto, likewise through the years, had more than her fair share of women that were interested and curious about a same sex relationship with the cheerful, sensual blonde. Stefan had definitely had his hands full with his sexy spouses. The combination of inherent innocence, combined with firm bodies that literally oozed hedonism, was irresistible to many.

Stefan would never forget his little run in, six hours ago, with a rather ominous red headed boy. He'd been introduced to what was known as the Kazekage; a visiting sovereign from a neighboring land, who'd stared at him with resentful green eyes when the boy, the youngest national leader Stefan had ever seen, had heard that Stefan was married to, and had fathered a child with Naruto. The menacing and jealous aura that had radiated off the young leader had been rather chilling. Here before him was another potential rival for the charms and heart and body of his blonde wife. Stefan couldn't help but wonder how much trouble this Gaara no Sabaku had been for Sasuke when Naruto had still been in Konoha, and how much trouble the boy would continue to be, should Naruto return to her home, and to her Sasuke.

Apparently, Naruto meant enough to this crimson haired, power oozing young man that Gaara had dropped everything when he heard the news, and teleported himself straight to Konoha. Straight to the Hokage's office, where Stefan had been, to the chagrin and anger of the Konohan ANBU.

But even as Stefan recognized and understood so much more about his blonde wife, his determination was all the greater, though he kept it silently to himself. He could understand that these people loved Naruto, and wanted him back. But Naruto had been a woman longer than she'd been a boy, and she was his wife of more than five years, and had been his lover for over ten. Naruto was his. His and Nathan's. Theirs and the children's. He would not, could not, deprive them of their wife and mother.

He could only hope, that when he returned home, she could be induced to stay with them. He could only hope the bonds of love and wifedom and motherhood, so close and dear to Naruto for so long, were stronger than her yearning for her home, her people, her… lover.

He gripped the railing harder. Sasuke, his Konohan counterpart, was in his world, right now. With Nathan, his wounded husband.

His fixation upon Naruto abruptly vaporized. As much as he hated the idea of Sasuke Uchiha with his husband, possibly wooing their wife away from them, he was stricken to the core with fear and worry. Was Nathan all right? Had that damn madman, Francis, killed him? He fervently hoped not, and waited with all the more impatience for the shinobi that would soon come for him.

He had to find out, had to know. Where and how was Nathan? He knew it was entirely possible that when he stepped through the green door once more, he would find a world that had no Nathan in it. And his world would then end. But he couldn't envision a world without the beautiful blonde man in it. Simply couldn't. And so he held tight to a fierce belief that he would go home, find his husband wounded and not dead, and he would hold Nathan tightly to his heart, and never let him go. And it made him even more determined, to hold onto Naruto that much tighter as well.

The blondes, and his children, were his world. He couldn't survive without them. Each and every one of them. They were his, and he would use all his persuasive charm to ensure that what was his, would stay his.

The back of his neck prickled, as it had so often in this world, as he felt force move towards him, and he stiffened. He recognized that energy, having been very close to it through most of this bizarre day.

Shikamaru.

"You're awake," the lazy drawl met his ears from the door of his rooms.

Stefan merely inclined his head, without turning around and looking at the boy.

"Why am I not surprised?" Shikamaru said flatly. "Damn, you may not be him, but you might as well be. So arrogant."

Stefan merely smirked, sure the young chuunin could sense it even if he couldn't see it. And he would be right.

"You know, you may know something about fighting… such a bastardized mix of Uzumaki and Uchiha moves I've never seen before…" Shikamaru observed dryly. They'd sparred earlier, to test exactly how much skill Stefan Madara possessed in fighting. And he'd honestly been impressed. Naruto had taught the man well. But he was a very far cry from Sasuke Uchiha's level of power, even without the sharingan and chakra. It was to be expected. Sasuke had lived and breathed the shinobi way from the cradle. Stefan, though his counterpart, had lived in world ruled by words and law, rather than the strength of a man's hand and skill in battle.

"But you are still but a babe in the woods compared to the rest of us." Shikamaru continued, knowing it would irritate the mature version of Sasuke, but still knowing it had to be said. "You should have rested. We have a very long day ahead of us."

Stefan finally turned around, and rested the small of his back against the cool iron of the railing. "Tell me, Shikamaru," he said tersely, holding onto his very Uchiha like temper, "what would you have done, if you were me?"

Shikamaru finally inclined his head. Though he would have avowed to a Konohan that he would have spent his time in sleep or perhaps cloud watching, he knew, deep in his heart, that had he stood in Stefan's shoes, not knowing how his soulmate had fared after being shot, not knowing how much danger his wife and children were in, torn in heart that his blonde female lover could very well leave him and his family… he would not have slept a wink either, and the clouds would not have been able to compete with his worry and concern.

Hell, he'd had his chance to rest himself, but thoughts of seeing Naruto's bright smile, female or not, had consumed his very soul. God, he would never have expected to miss that beautiful blonde pest so terribly much. Hopefully, said beauty would once again brighten his life with his husky voice, his boneheaded charm, and his blinding smiles.

Shikamaru, in his inimitable and self professed lazy way, was as much a victim of the force known as Naruto as any; he'd had a wet dream or two or three about his blonde comrade, and knew, if Sasuke Uchiha hadn't been around to glare away anyone that got too close to Naruto, he might have tried his hand himself.

"Are you ready?" Shikamaru asked instead, eyes lazily flicking from the sandal clad feet of Stefan, to the man's shinobi garbed form. They'd decided that when Stefan returned to his world, he would do so with others, in stealth. His normal clothes were carefully stowed in his pack, should he need them.

"I've been ready since I got here," Stefan said with heat. It infuriated him that they'd forced him to stay, forced his to know, when he wanted so much to go back, and rescue his fallen husband and family. Just over twelve hours had passed since the dark haired man had arrived. Which meant that six days had passed in his world. Six days never to be had again. Every hour that passed here meant that many more days there. And Nathan, god willing, was waiting for him, worrying about him, struggling to live with his injury. He had to go home.

"Then let's go. The others are waiting."

And Stefan moved forward eagerly.


	11. Chapter 11

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 11

Night was well advanced, and of the five people in the old cow byre, only the two children were asleep. It had taken younger Sasuke a little time to fall asleep, for the sudden if abruptly broken kiss between his mother, and the young man that bore his name had troubled him greatly. Naruto was his mother! The wife of his fathers. This other man, no matter how much he might look like Sasuke and his Papa, had no business putting his mouth and hands on her. But Narue had stilled his ire when it had happened; her blue eyes filled with a confidence that he himself did not feel. Yet, he'd remained quiet, and had not fought for what was his and his fathers'.

As for Naruto and the man in question, things were very awkward after the intense but thwarted kiss. It was hard, very hard, not to act on the urges that burned so fiercely in each other. For Naruto, it was a heartache beyond anything she'd ever felt before. Here was Sasuke, at long last, within reach of her arms and lips, yet she couldn't avail herself of him. She belonged to other men. Legal or not, she'd given her word to belong to them, and Naruto Uzumaki's word was binding.

And Sasuke, he felt he'd slipped in to some nightmare even greater than his time at Sound had seemed. When he risked using the forbidden jutsu that could have cost him his life had he not performed it correctly, he never thought that when he finally found his heart's desire, it would turn out like this. He'd never, in his wildest dreams, at any time, thought that Naruto would belong to someone else. And deep down in his half frozen heart, fury began to mount. Naruto was his!

To keep himself from doing or saying something unforgivable to her or the man that was her double as well as one of her husbands, Sasuke finally left the byre to find food, and see what news could be found. And while he was gone, Naruto fretted, and Nathan slept.

When Sasuke returned at dusk, he brought a bucket of KFC chicken he'd stolen from some picnickers six miles away, a bottle of juice purloined from a store, and troubling news. Arrest warrants for homicide had been issued for Nathan Arashi, and Stefan Madara, for obviously the witnesses had told police that Nathan Arashi had been in that alley, and had been seen shooting Francis Middlewaithe. And though at the time, Sasuke himself had been mistaken for younger Sasuke, obviously the police had decided that a ten year old boy couldn't have been guilty of shooting a street punk in the head, and that it must have been Nathan's husband.

While the children eagerly dug into Sasuke's meal offerings, which neither Naruto and Sasuke could bear to touch, they discussed the fact that they were too close to Naruto's burnt out house; eventually, they would be discovered. The tension between them was almost more than either could bear. As for Naruto herself, though she wasn't wanted in connection with the murders, the police very badly wanted to question her. She would be picked up immediately, and Sasuke couldn't allow that. In eleven days, the door would open once more, and by hell or high water Sasuke was going to be there, and he was going to take Naruto with him. No matter how much Nathan was like Naruto as she should have been, or how Sasuke's body reacted to the proximity of Naruto's double, Naruto was his. And he was taking her home. Home to her homeland, home to the Uchiha district, home to his bed.

But the semantics of getting a woman wanted for questioning away from her wounded husband and children to the scene of a crime without being arrested troubled Sasuke, on many levels. Could he steal Nathan's and Stefan's children? Could he deny Naruto hers? Denying Naruto of the men she'd come to love in the last eighteen years troubled Sasuke not at all; she was his, and he would soon remind her why, but the children… that was a very different story.

Sasuke watched them now, eating eagerly, and offering Naruto bites which she smilingly declined, saying she'd eaten earlier. A bald faced lie. Sasuke was half tempted to force her to eat. She looked somehow frail and delicate as she sat against the wall, running her fingers through her son's hair as Narue snuggled down in her lap.

God he wanted her.

Sasuke had always hated Naruto's sexy no jutsu with a passion; he didn't care for the charms of women, and seeing his rival and friend at first, and later his lover in that form had angered him; reminding him of all the times his fan girls had tried to force themselves on him. But now... Now was a very different story. Before Naruto had always had the ability to return to his own natural form, and now, he didn't. And he was Naruto; always had been, always would be. And Sasuke had discovered that no matter what form Naruto wore, he burned with passion and desire for the blonde+. He would take Naruto, even as a woman. Because Naruto completed him, and he had to have him.

If not for the children, the wounded man still sleeping on the hay, Sasuke would have made love to Naruto, despite her protests. It would have been good, god, so very good, for both of them, and she soon would have forgotten any reasoning she had in his arms. Later he could have dealt with any aftermaths; after he had reclaimed her for his very own. Sasuke had been thinking long and hard since their kiss earlier, and had come to a decision. Naruto belonged to him, and somehow, he would take her back. He would take back the right to be in her arms and in her body. He would take back what had always and would always be his. Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto herself was completely demoralized. Sasuke's news had distracted her from the heartache of not being able to show him the love she still carried for him, in the light of the possible loss of her children. Yes, they had won their case four years ago. But there were still so many people out there who hated homosexuals, and anyone to do with them. It had been so very touch and go as to whether or not they would lose Sasuke and Narue, and this latest fracas would surely be the nail in the coffin of their life together. With Sasuke and Nathan being suspected as having killed men, and with the bodies of the others found at the house, the tide would surely turn against them now. Even if Nathan and Stefan somehow managed to escape prison, the children would be taken from them.

They had lost everything.

Sasuke found himself staring at the still sleeping man. Nathan was so very… like Naruto. Even though, were Naruto still male, whiskers not in evidence, and stood apart from Nathan, Sasuke would be able to tell who was who, even from a distance. But still… the man's face, his eyes, his smile, even the scent of his body, was so similar to Naruto's that several times in their flight to the compound, Sasuke had felt an intense sexual attraction. An intimate relationship with Nathan Arashi would not bother Sasuke at all, had things been different. But Sasuke didn't want Nathan, no matter how much he was like Naruto. He wanted… Naruto. He had to have Naruto. And somehow, he would have him again.

The children had finally fallen asleep. And Naruto, despite how she tried to hide it, was crying. As Stefan Madara reacted when Nathan cried, so too Sasuke felt when he saw that single lone tear tracking down her face. Wildness. Rage. Naruto should not cry. God, no matter how Sasuke like to anger his dobe, to tease him, it made him want to kill something when he saw grief on that beautiful face, when he knew that bright and shining heart was hurting.

He beckoned her away from her sleeping children, cuddled up beside her sleeping husband, and when she wouldn't, went and got her.

But to Sasuke's relief, he discovered that she wasn't crying over him, but of the potential loss of her children. And though he knew very little about this world, he knew that children should be with their parents; not in an orphanage like Naruto had started out in, not in some stranger's home who wouldn't, couldn't love them like their own. It tore at Sasuke's frigid heart to think of Narue and little Sasuke separated from Naruto, from each other.

Though Nathan had woken, he wasn't quite lucid, and was running a low fever. Naruto was worried that his wound was getting infected, and she used the very last of the water that Sasuke had also brought, to clean it once more. Nathan groaned, tossed so restlessly that Sasuke had to pin him down for her to finish, and kept calling for Stefan.

He would move in and out of consciousness several times before finally waking, a little more clearheaded, at dawn.

Sasuke had gone out again, and discovered a police barricade by the driveway, and over heard the initial roll call and plans to search the woods; for more bodies, for the two hunted men, and Naruto and the children. He returned to the byre post haste.

Nathan, on hearing the grim news, insisted that they move. When Naruto protested about his wound, Sasuke pointed out that Nathan's condition would hardly get any better in the holding cell he would be confined in until he was transferred to the prison hospital.

What could she say?

So they woke the children, put Narue on Naruto's back, the two Sasuke's together, and both adults helped Nathan stagger out of their temporary shelter.

It was a grueling trip through the woods. Occasionally, they heard the voices of the searchers, that were gaining more ground on them as the day brightened. Finally, they left the forest and found themselves in a rather well to do portion of the city, where they would stick out like a sore thumb. To Sasuke's surprise, this time Naruto stole and hotwired a car, instead of Nathan. It would seem that as much as Naruto had taught her husbands, so to they taught her.

However, they couldn't keep the car long; the owners would surely report it, and staying in such was a great way to draw the interest of the police that already wanted them so much. They were forced to abandon it before noon.

Little Sasuke and Narue were unusually solomn, and Sasuke was grateful they did not behave like other children of his acquaintance; whining, griping, and making demands. Not Stefan Madara's children. In fact, they never even complained about being tired, having to walk so far, or being hungry.

Their plight was rather distressing, as none of the adults could allow themselves to be seen, as they were all very distinctive, as were the children. They had passed by storefronts, collars lifted high, and seen bits of newscasts; all five of their faces were plastered across the screens.

It was time to go aground again.

Naruto finally broke down and called Nathan's parents. She tried to disguise her voice, and did rather well, all things considered. A rendezvous point was made. And Asuma's double, the man that had accompanied Jason the morning before, came and picked them up in yet another nondescript alley.

But the man, who asked no questions, drove them to a quaint little farmhouse well into the surrounding country. It belonged to a collegue of Jason's, who was abroad at the moment, and was just the thing for them.

Naruto, who'd been running on high octane fear and anxiety since the attack on her home the day before, and had not eaten or slept since that morning, found herself dazed, and felt ashamed. She was a shinobi, for god's sake, no matter how many years had passed since she'd actually acted as one. However, in the last fifteen years, she'd done nothing more strenuous than daily training and a lot of really intense sex. And her concern for her missing husband, her wounded husband, her children's future, and her lost love with Sasuke, she was emotionally spent, and utterly exhausted.

While Shinra was in the kitchen preparing a quick meal for them, Naruto fell asleep on the couch, snoring softly, the two kids leaning against her on each side, equally asleep. Sasuke doubted that even the scent of ramen would wake her now.

They were woken, however, and Naruto was finally induced to eat by the simple fact that Nathan refused to eat unless she did. Once they were done, she almost staggered into one of the two bedroom to tuck the children in. A few minutes later, Sasuke peeked in to find her laying between them, all above the covers and still fully dressed, fast asleep.

Sasuke tch'd, and took off their shoes and tossed a blanket over them. They could bathe later. If they tried now, they would likely drown, all three of them.

Shinra left after doing the dishes, with news that the Sannins would come to see them as soon as possible, and the little farmhouse grew quiet.

Which left Sasuke the only man standing to care for Nathan.

The older man was filthy, too weak to stand, and running a low and intermittent fever. Though he dreaded it with all his might and main, Sasuke knew he would have to bathe him. Well, at least the site of his wound was clean, and as for other bits, well, there was no way in hell Sasuke was going to clean them. He was too much like Naruto, and Sasuke would die of embarrassment should the blonde man notice the erection he would undoubtedly get if he handled any intimate parts.

Thus, Nathan was rushed through the quickest, yet most thorough sponge bath of his life. Not that he'd ever had many; Nathan was normally healthy as a horse, and seldom needed any sort long term or in depth care.

However, when Sasuke handed him the sponge, making sure the bucket of warm soapy water was handy, Nathan's lips twitched despite his weakness and horror of having to be bathed like a small child.

Throughout the entire affair, Sasuke's cheeks had burned, and he'd kept his eyes averted from Nathan's bare body as much as possible.

Nathan, despite being boneheaded and quite thick at times, could read people like books occasionally. And Sasuke was so very much like a young Stefan that it wasn't even funny. They had some many of the same mannerisms as well as being identical to each other, save for age. And he had finally figured out what Naruto had tried to tell him so long ago; he was Naruto's biological duplicate; this world's version of the misplaced blonde woman, just as Stefan was the same to Sasuke.

Though Nathan had slept a good part of the ride in the stolen car, he'd still had plenty of time to think very deep thoughts. Not that he was incapable of such, it was just that he usually had so much more to think about. How the light caught in Stefan's hair just right, and made it gleam with almost a blue light. How the curve of Naruto's cheek was just so alluring. How the flowers smelled so strongly in the heat of the sun, yet held a delicacy once said sun had set. How he loved the taste of ramen, of sugar, of the sweets his husband had made for them. How to best configure the website for optimum returns, and how fond he was of tickling Narue's pink little toes and making her squeal, and how little Sasuke was so very much like his Papa, so serious and filled with the same dry wit and cynicism.

But now he was thinking about their situation; how his world aligned so perfectly with Naruto's, and how this world's Stefan and Nathan were reflected in Sasuke and Naruto.

And he felt both fear, anger, and crushing regret; To know that Naruto felt towards Sasuke as he did Stefan. To know that Naruto lived and breathed for Sasuke's smile, his lips, his touch, as Nathan did Stefan's. And to know both men reciprocated the feelings just as intensely in their own reserved but no less passionate ways.

Nathan felt jealousy at first. Naruto was theirs! How dare this dark haired, often cold eyed young man glance her way with such obvious yearning, no matter how hard he tried to hide it? How dare he look so much like Stefan? How dare he make the blonde man think thoughts that should only be reserved for his dark husband, not Naruto's long lost dark lover? How dare Sasuke smell so enticingly like Stefan? How dare the boy make him feel such intense emotions? How dare he make Nathan watch Sasuke and Naruto interact, and wonder with a feeling akin to excitement what it would be like to watch them kiss? To feel joy that at long last, Naruto would again experience what Nathan did every day when he enjoyed Stefan's passionate attentions?

Joy and anger, love and hate, pleasure and pain, generosity and jealousy; Nathan's mind and heart was a tangled jumble of them all.

And this greatest affront of all; not since Stefan had claimed the blonde boy when he was only fourteen had Nathan wanted to touch and kiss a man that wasn't Stefan Madara. But by all that was holy, as Sasuke ran the cloth over his body quickly and roughly, Nathan wanted to do just that; pull the dark boy down onto his body, arch up into him, and demand that Sasuke fuck the holy hell out of him, as he would have Stefan, despite his injury.

And Sasuke wasn't exactly impervious to these confusing feelings either; Nathan could tell. They were both experiencing the unsettled feelings of being in such proximity to the counterparts of their greatest loves and soulmates.

And yes, Nathan was a secret, or rather, not so secret romantic. He knew Stefan was his soulmate, and knew too, that Sasuke was Naruto's.

How could he condone keeping Naruto for themselves, when he would be denying the only woman he'd ever really loved the pleasure of her heart's choice? How could he deny Naruto what he would kill to have if he was in her place; separated from the man that gave him a reason to draw breath every day.

But… he did love Naruto; god, so much. He wasn't, and had never been bothered by the semantics of loving and having sex with someone who everyone thought had to be a long lost sister. And now he knew; Naruto was… himself. At worst, Nathan was guilty of nothing worse than the most unique form of masturbation ever. He couldn't imagine not having her in his life anymore, in his arms, in his bed. The sex between the three of them had never, ever failed to be anything but mind blowing, each and every time.

But again… As pleasurable as their threesomes were, and as much as he loved Naruto, there was nothing like the times it was just him and Stefan, alone together, no distractions, no interruptions. God, the pleasure, the love, the passion. At times it was so intense, Nathan thought he would surely die of it. And all through the years, Naruto had made sure that the pair of them had plenty of time for just each other.

She'd known, from the beginning, what Nathan and Stefan were to each other, because that was what she and Sasuke had been. She'd known, and had always made sure that they both found their renewing passion in just each other.

She'd known… all these years, and had been so uncomplainingly generous.

And now, it was possible for her to find that all consuming passion, that obliterating pleasure that could only be found in the arms and body of a soul mate, and here Nathan could only think about repaying her generosity with unbridled greed and selfishness.

Any incipient excitement he felt towards Sasuke was extinguished like a snuffed candle.

How could he be so callous, so cruel, so… so…

Evil…

He looked up, eyes stark and so anguished, that Sasuke drew closer from where he'd retreated to once Nathan's bath was done, and the man rebandaged, remedicated, and redressed in a clean bed.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke was sure he could actually see Nathan's heart breaking in his eyes, and had a horrible suspicion it was his fault. And he felt strange, both resentful, and guilty.

"I know you want her."

"Of course I want him," Sasuke responded with cold heat. "He was mine first. He would still be mine if not for the freak event that brought him here and kept him here. And if he were free, he would be mine again."

"I see." Nathan looked away, deeply troubled and wounded in heart. It hurt to hear such things, no matter how true they were. He was losing her, he knew it. And if he were as generous as Naruto, he would let her go, let her have her soulmate, her perfection of union.

But even without the delicate tangle of having children with her, he wasn't so sure he could just give her up completely, let her go utterly, never kiss her again, never make love to her again, never share her with Stefan again, never wake up beside her again.

Because he did love her. He loved her so much; almost as much as he did Stefan.

And therein lay his dilemma. Almost as much. Naruto deserved better than that. It didn't matter that he would bleed his heart's blood to lose her. It didn't matter that he loved her more than ninety nine percent of anyone alive or dead ever would anyone else; it still wasn't as much as he loved and desired Stefan. Just as Stefan, despite the great love he'd found for her, felt for Nathan just that little bit more.

And Nathan would keep her to himself and his husband, and deny the woman that had always made sure that Nathan and Stefan kindled their great passion for each other frequently, and deny her this boy, who loved her as much as Stefan did him, and whom Naruto loved as much as he did his dark husband.

He couldn't think about it anymore. God, he wanted Stefan. He needed Stefan. Come home, Stefan!

And that great stone of remorse and guilt became just a little heavier.

"I'm tired," Nathan whispered, white to the lips, unable to bear anymore anguish and torment. "I'm going to sleep."

Sasuke stared at him a moment, having a glimmering of an idea of what was so tormenting the blonde man. But he felt no satisfaction, no hope, for he'd never seen so much pain in eyes that blue. So much pain in eyes that looked exactly like Naruto's. Without a word, he retreated to his own bed, across the room from the other man.

And as he lay in his bed, all he could feel was anger at how things had turned out. Naruto was his. He wanted his blonde back, and he meant to have him. But seeing the pain in the eyes of the man that was his dobe's double, it gave him doubt, and that angered him all the more. He should just take Naruto and her children, take them home, give the blonde back his rightful body, and enjoy the love Naruto had always, and would always have for him. He should. He would….

But god, Nathan's eyes…

If he were to do what he was now contemplating, take Naruto _and _her children back to Konoha, he had to pause. What of Nathan and Stefan, their fathers? Nathan would grieve endlessly, and he was enough like Naruto that Sasuke found the notion repugnant. He would remember how Nathan's eyes looked just now, and it would haunt him the rest of his days. He wouldn't be able to bear that thought that somewhere, in another universe, Naruto's double was heartstricken and would stay that way until he died. Sasuke… couldn't do it. And as for Stefan, well, knowing Stefan was _his _double, he knew the man would not rest until he had tracked down his children, and taken back what both Stefan and Nathan had to have to be happy. And Sasuke would look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Sure, without Chakra, there was no way to cross over to Konoha. But if anyone could do it, Stefan Madara would find a way.

And Stefan was already in Konoha. Sasuke was sure he would never let Naruto and his children pass him by and blithely return to his own world. No, Stefan would fight tooth and nail to keep what was his, as would Sasuke. But what if… Could he… would it be possible…

Damn, but the man was, like Naruto, breathtaking. It would be no hardship, after all. And though Sasuke would rather kill than share what was his… imagine the possibilities…

Nathan was, after all, just another Naruto. And though the idea of more than one Naruto was a little… scary at times, this man meant so very much to his dobe. And as for Stefan… well, as Naruto herself indulged in the ultimate form of masturbation, what was to stop Sasuke from doing the same? It would be like sharing… but not…

The ramifications of this novel idea was too much, for even a brain of Sasuke's caliber, and he abruptly sat down and decided to act first and deal later. After all, Naruto had made a career out of such strategy.

Perhaps it was time to borrow a page from Naruto's book.


	12. Chapter 12

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 12

Unknowing that, despite the differences in time between Konoha and America, Stefan and the Konohans were mounting a rescue mission, Nathan and Sasuke thought that the door would not open for another eleven days. And both men spent this first day of the reunion in deep contemplation.

Sasuke, determined to win Naruto back, began a not quite subtle campaign of gentle sexual terrorism. It was, after all, Naruto. Subtlety would completely pass her by unnoticed. He never lost an opportunity to touch her. A stroke of her shoulder or side in passing, a cornucopia of the slight but oh so intimate smiles that he'd always reserved for Naruto alone, making sure to let his lips brush softly against the shell of her ear when he whispered things into them that were not meant for children's ears.

And Naruto burned hot and cold with excitement and guilt, her world so completely skewed into surrealism that at times she was convinced this was all just a really long dream, much like the ones she used to have so many of, years ago. Had Sasuke not shown up in her life again, she would have spent the days of Nathan's convalescence and the period of waiting for Stefan's return in Nathan's bed. But she couldn't do that; not with Sasuke there. And somehow, all the passion and desire she used to have for the blonde man had burnt to ashes in her unrequited love for the boy she couldn't have. She spent the first night, and the next few, with the kids.

Thankfully, with the medicine that Shinra had brought from Suzanne, Nathan's infection quickly cleared up, and he experienced no fever after the second day. His side was sore, and would continue to be so for several days, but he was no longer bed bound, and he watched Sasuke's actions, and felt anger mount.

Didn't the boy know how much his actions were hurting the blonde woman? Surely, Nathan understood why Sasuke was doing it, but did the haunted look in her eyes mean nothing to him? He cornered the dark youth that looked so desperately like his fiercely yearned for husband at the first opportunity.

But he got a completely unexpected reaction from Sasuke; instead of defending his actions in a cold but logical way, instead of taking offense at what should only have been perceived as interference, Sasuke instead had given him the exactly same smile Stefan always did, when he was teasing and exciting his blonde husband; like a cold siren. The look that had always meant the blonde was about to be made love to.

Stunned by the excitement the look and smile had given him, Nathan had stumbled back a step, sure Sasuke was about to kiss or touch him.

Sasuke himself was amused by the look of mingled panic and passion on the blonde man's face, as Nathan virtually backed himself into a corner to evade what the boy had not as yet, physically offered but simply emotionally.

"W…what… what are you doing…" Nathan stammered, tense.

"Relax," Sasuke breathed warmly over the other man's face, despite the fact that Nathan was slightly taller than him. "I'm not going to touch you… yet. But you should be helping me, not hindering me. Because, I know what you are to Stefan, what you are to Naruto, what you are to his children. And you're right; I do want him. He's mine, and nothing will change that. I've hurt my dobe a lot over the years, and I have yet again, though this time through no fault of my own. I'm not going to hurt him, anymore. If he wants the four of you, then he shall have you."

Confused, Nathan crowded a littler tighter into the corner. Sure, Sasuke had said he wouldn't touch him, but he added that slightly sinister yet. And Nathan would allow no man to touch him but Stefan; no matter how much Sasuke was like him.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked hoarsely.

Aware that he Nathan's complete attention, and had completely diffused the man's anger, Sasuke stepped back with a slight smirk, watching Nathan heave a breath of relief at his distance.

"It should be obvious, even to a dobe like you, Nathan," Sasuke said slowly, watching the man's reactions. "This place is not for you, not anymore. The police are waiting for you. You and your husband both. And Naruto can't lie to save his life; it will come out that he killed some of the men at your house. And though you all may have had excellent reasons, you still are both guilty of killing several men. You will go to jail, and they will take your children away. Even when you get out, if your children haven't grown up, they will never let you have them back. Naruto has told me how bigoted this would is against children and homosexuality. Do you really want all of that?"

Defeat was expressed in every line of Nathan's body, giving the boy a twinge of remorse that it was his words that brought the blonde man to this pass. But he pressed on.

"So why allow it? There's another place, you know. They don't care about the private lives of people. You can have your man and your children, and no one will raise an eyebrow. There will be no prisons, no foster families or orphanages for you and yours there. Think about it, Nathan."

Sasuke took another step back, his face growing cold. "Naruto is mine. I will not allow him to languish in an alien prison. Not Naruto. It would kill him. And Naruto's heart has been broken enough; I will not allow him to grieve for his children… or the men he's come to love. You are coming back to Konoha with me. All of you. You, Stefan, your children, Naruto… we're all going back. And there we'll stay."

He began to slowly back away as his words began to sink in. "Think about it, Nathan. A world where you don't have to hide the love you feel for another man; where you don't have to fear being persecuted for not only that, but for protecting what is yours. A world were you don't have to fear prison, or the loss of your children. A world of clean air, pure water, and the ability to love, to have and to hold what you want. A world based on the strength of your heart and your hands. A world like Konoha… Think about it."

He turned away, then paused at the door. "And I won't stop with Naruto. He's mine, and the sooner he realizes that, the better for us all. Help me. You know what we are to each other. And we can have it all… in Konoha."

Sasuke vanished out the door. He had a dobe to seduce.

But Naruto, for all her density at times, had figured out what he was doing, and had taken steps to avoid it. It was but another crushing load on her heart. Why couldn't Sasuke understand? She'd made vows, legal and binding, with Stefan, and not quite so legal but just as binding with Nathan. Vows. She would not, could not break them, and stay true to who she was, no matter how unfated the body she now wore was. This is what she'd had to live with for eighteen long years, and that was that. It didn't matter how fiercely her heart throbbed and ached. She was a man of her word.

Little Sasuke and Narue suddenly had a shadow; where they went, so did she, and vice versa. A child, especially one in her arms, was the best deterrent to Sasuke's amour. Naturally, both children were savvy enough to realize what was going on, and while Narue would agreeably fall in with Sasuke's suggestion that oh, the weather was so fine outside, why shouldn't they go out and play, Sasuke, his fathers' son all the way, steadfastly refused to abandon his mother. Little Sasuke was far more aggressive in his protection of his mother, with his Uchiha-like scowls and glares, than little Narue, who was apt to giggle, chirping encouragement to the older Sasuke whenever he would try to steal a hug, a kiss, or a caress.

Naruto even went so far once, as to use the little boy in her arms as a shield against Sasuke, who was promptly bitten on the arm. Bitten! Sasuke Uchiha, by his little clone.

It was not to be endured.

And late that afternoon, Suzanne and Jason arrived.

Naturally, Suzanne promptly and thoroughly examined Nathan, from his tonsils to his toenails, and drew in a shaky breath when she saw his wound was healing nicely, and his infection well on its way to oblivion. She and Jason had never had children; Suzanne was barren, and Jason had refused to find the only immortality available with another woman. Suzanne was his heart. He would never hurt her so, no matter how she'd urged him to father children with another in their shared young adulthood. Oh, Jason loved to look; always had, always would. But that was it. Privately, Suzanne was of the opinion that had one of the lovely ladies he spied on ever invited him, he would have frantically stammered and run away. Now, both were far too old, to either sire or bear, and Nathan was their child; had been so since the moment he drew breath, mere hours before his biological mother had died. They could not possibly love him any more than if Jason had provided the seed, and Suzanne the egg and womb. He was their son.

And some misbegotten freak had shot him! Had Nathan not killed him already, both of them would have gleefully and bloodthirstily ended his life; probably more violently, lingeringly, and painfully than a shot through the heart. The past two days had been an unmitigated nightmare for both of them.

The police had arrived, with news that Nathan and Stefan were wanted in connection with several murders, and that it was believed that both men had gone into hiding with their wife and children. And the news that Nathan had been shot and that some horrific battle had taken place at the Madara home had held them both on the edge of hysteria. Where was their son, their son and daughter in law, their grandchildren? They were almost paralyzed with dread and fear. Until the call came in from Naruto. Though both of them loved her like a daughter, and not simply because she was genetically identical to Nathan, they'd never loved her more than they had when she breathlessly told them that Nathan was wounded, but quite alive.

Since Suzanne and Jason Sannin were the closest living relatives to Nathan Arashi, and had always kept in very close contact with their son and his family, naturally they were being scrutinized within an inch of their lives; if Nathan was going to surface, he would do so through them. Their house was watched, their phone tapped, and police tended to come and go at will, convinced contact would be made.

And so it was, but Naruto was smart, had disguised her voice cleverly, and had used certain words that only Nathan's family members would have; careful wording after that let them know Nathan's state of injury and Stefan's disappearance. Unable to come at the moment, as a police captain had been with them when the call came in, they'd sent Shinra to pick them up.

Now, a day later, and after the most complex fandance ever that allowed the old couple to leave their haunts and go where the wanted hid, thanks in great part to Suzanne's old highschool chum Zunie and her boy friend of fifty years, Sanderson. The friends took on the Sannin's persona, and vice versa, leaving Suzanne and Jason clear to make that so important visit to their son.

And though now Nathan was convinced that Naruto had never been mentally troubled, had never suffered from delusions, they still held back. Nathan had been shot, for god's sake. It was a wonder he didn't hallucinate anything stranger. No, it was impossible. Stefan, god help him, was lost somewhere, and would soon surface in much the same manner as Naruto had. And they would be able to pass on directions to him, and then the Sannins would make arrangements to smuggle the entire family out of the country; perhaps to Japan. Stefan's grandfather came from Japan, and family members still lived there. And they would follow. They had already been tentatively discussing retiring, even before this latest resurgence of Naruto's illness. And since it was obviously affecting Nathan now, perhaps time was ripe. They had more than enough money, and would not have to rely on Stefan's wealth. Thankfully, the bulk of the Madara fortune lay in foreign banks; the American accounts had been frozen already. Yes, it was time. As soon as Stefan came out of hiding, and he could never stay away from Nathan long, they would relocate to Japan, where the American police would be unable to touch them. Stefan was a dual citizen; and the murder of American thugs would worry the Japanese government not at all. They would find sanctuary there.

Despite the Sannins' inability to accept the truth of Naruto's past, it was a very lovely visit, on all their parts, save Sasuke. Naruto loved them not only for who they reminded her of, but because these duplicates had been a part of her life for a long time. Nathan, naturally, welcomed his parents at any time, especially now, when everything was so terrible. As for Sasuke; they were an annoyance in their refusal to accept all of Naruto, no matter how incredulous it seemed to them, and the fact it was impossible to seduce her when them around. Thankfully, they couldn't stay long. They were going to return home very soon, and begin the secret preparations for the move abroad.

Now they just had to wait for Stefan. Nathan, of course, refused to budge without his husband. He was serenely sure he would see his dark lover in eleven… no, now ten more days. He had to rely on Sasuke's word that the Konohans would not harm him. He would see him soon. And my god, would Stefan get an armful then.

Nathan wistfully watched the Sannins leave, wishing things were as they used to be. He hated hiding out, fearing discovery and all that it would entail. And the realization that there was a major move on the horizon made him even more thoughtful.

He'd been to Japan, several times. They'd frequently vacationed there, among Stefan's kinfolk. Hell, even Sasuke and Narue were fluent in Japanese, as was he, though not as smoothly. But it was still an alien society to him. And that made him think even harder about Sasuke's earlier words.

Japan. Konoha. Both alien places to him. And in Konoha, perhaps the guilt of his inability to let Naruto go would be assuaged. Naruto could have her soulmate, her Sasuke, and he and Stefan could still have her, and the children wouldn't lose a parent or two or three.

Everyone would benefit, as Sasuke had said.

But what of his parents? They didn't believe in Konoha. But then again, neither had he, until Stefan vanished through an impossible green door. Perhaps it was time to talk to Sasuke about this again.

He could no more go to Konoha without Suzanne and Jason than he could to Japan without Stefan.

They were family, and family meant everything to Nathan.

Sasuke, for his part, found Nathan as easy to read as Naruto. That his adoptive parents were important to Nathan, and likewise to Naruto, threw a new wrinkle in things. But it was encouraging to see Nathan staring so thoughtfully at him all evening long. He wondered what Tsunade and Jiraiya would do when faced with their duplicates. He couldn't help but smirk at the thought. Oh, things would be lively in Konoha. And of course, if Naruto wanted them to come as well, hell… what was one or two more? He'd always been aware that with Naruto came bonds of friendship other than the one they shared. Even before Naruto's loss to this world, Sasuke had been forced to put up with Naruto's wide circle of friends. He was grateful that Stefan had somehow managed to curtail such a gathering. It had to be Stefan; Nathan was as gregarious as Naruto, naturally. Thus, Stefan had to be the one that had kept this world's circle of friends to a dull roar. Otherwise, Sasuke might have to consider moving half a city worth of people to Konoha. Bringing in six other worlders would be strenuous enough.

He made a mental note to ask the other raven how such an impossibility had been accomplished.

Night had fallen, little tummies were filled to bursting with the delicious foods the Sannins had brought, and the children were now safely asleep in their bed.

Sasuke was ready, and the gun shy looks from his dobe made him aware that Naruto realized just how vulnerable she really was right now.

Little did she know how vulnerable. Nathan had come to a decision. They would go to Konoha. And all that this entailed.

Nathan caught Sasuke's eyes, and nodded slowly.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. Naruto would not be sleeping with her children tonight.


	13. Chapter 13

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 13

Though the adults thought the children were asleep, they were not. Narue, the moment Daddy had left, thinking them both fast asleep, got out of the bed she shared with Sasuke and Mommy, and wandered over to the window. She dearly loved to watch the moon sail across the sky, with its attendant wisps of clouds. The stars twinkling here at this farmhouse had no rivals in the brilliant city lights, and were thus clearer and brighter than she'd ever seen. The magical hour between dusk and full night was always an enchantment for her.

"I can't believe you," Sasuke suddenly spoke up, his voice low and sullen from the bed. Obviously he'd been tricking Daddy too.

Narue turned to look at him, her face limned in moonlight. She knew what he was talking about, and she sighed. She'd tried to explain it to him before, but there was always a grown up about, or something happening to interfere with a good, juicy, kid-to-kid talk. And she was well aware that such would soon be beyond Sasuke's reach. Despite his youth, he was moving quickly into adulthood, and would soon lose that wonderful quality that children could possess. Adults always tended to over analyze, over think, over quantify, and over worry about everything; and Sasuke was doing all of the above right now.

Giving one last regretful look at her bewitching night sky, she ambled back over to the bed, picked up the ruffled skirt of her nightie, and crawled in beside him under the covers.

Sasuke lay beside her, stiff and tense, unwilling to give an inch. As far as he was concerned, she was a traitor to the family, and it bewildered and agonized him. Narue! The closest, dearest, most beloved, most precious person in Sasuke's life. A traitor to the family. Unbeknownst to anyone, he'd wept over this very horrible thing.

"Don't be like that, Sauce," Narue crooned softly, swarming into his resistant embrace. "You just don't understand. You're too close to growing up; you're losing your gift. Please, don't go yet. Don't leave me alone in childhood."

Sasuke gave a soft, reluctant sigh; she had a point. Already he'd noticed that the way he sensed things, the way he thought, was changing. And he was noticing more about the world around him than the things that delighted and ensorcelled a child. The depth of the adult world and concerns was so complex and convoluted that it was crowding out the sweet delights and miracles that he lived with every day.

"But I still don't understand," he began in a strained voice, nevertheless beginning to melt against her. Thank god he couldn't see her face too clearly; if she wrinkled her little nose at him, he would be lost. He never could resist his sister. "She's our mother. She's Papa and Daddy's wife; she belongs to them, not this… this… Sasuke." His own name in connection with the strange dark boy was almost bitter on his tongue. It didn't take much to realize that this creature was the boy who he'd been named for. Despite the older Sasuke's youth.

Seventeen was monstrously old to someone as young as both Sauce and Roo. Even so, little Sasuke knew there was a great difference in age between his mother and her long lost lover. Like Narue, he had enormous hearing potential for things adults tended to deem beyond them. Children were young; not stupid. Though he really couldn't understand the whys and wherefores of this age discrepancy; he knew both his Mama and Daddy accepted this boy as the real Sasuke Uchiha.

"You're thinking too grown uppy again, Sauce," Narue chirped softly, lest they be overheard and this chance at a real talk between them ended before it really began. "Let me ask you this; do you think this family would be better if we had just a single father?"

Sasuke shook his head violently; like Narue, he'd frequently been teased or scorned because of his bisexual fathers, and the mother that permitted such. And like his sister, he pitied them, even as they angered and hurt him. Their own bigotry was robbing them of the richness and splendor that was Papa and Daddy.

And Narue understood. After all, they'd often taken refuge in each other's arms after the pain of their so called peers digs and slurs. Even in Papa's special school. It was something they both agreed on.

"What if," Narue went on eagerly, "it got only better? What if we got another father? I've heard Big Sasuke talking to Daddy; he tells excellent stories. If you weren't so upset with him, you'd have listened to them too. He's a ninja, Sauce! A real live ninja! And if we were in K… Kona…" She stumbled over the unfamiliar word a moment, then went on stronger. "If we were in Konoha, you'd be training to be a ninja too! With kunai and shuriken and everything."

Despite himself, Sasuke began to take interest. She had a very valid point. The stories the Uchiha could tell! He relaxed against his sister even more, arms coming around to hug her back.

"Besides," Narue went on, contentedly, feeling Sasuke give in against her body, "Mommy loves him so much. And he loves her too. I heard him tell Daddy that if we went to Konoha together, we could all stay together as a family." Her she frowned, and despite the filtered moonlight, Sasuke could see her nose wrinkling in consternation, and his heart thumped. "I wish we didn't have to move away. I loved our house, and all the beautiful things in it. I miss it all."

She sounded so mournful, Sasuke squeezed her tight enough to make her squeak. "I'm sorry, Roo. It's all gone. You saw the house burning."

Tears bedewed her long lashes, glittering in the half dark, and Sasuke abruptly understood his father's heart when Naruto or Nathan wept; murderous. If Mama, Daddy, and the Uchiha hadn't killed those men, he'd want to do it all over again.

"Don't cry, Roo," he went on desperately. "We'll just make another home; a better home, with more beautiful things than ever in it. I promise."

She gave watery laugh. "Yeah, and this time Mommy can have the pantry she always wanted."

"That's right," Sasuke said, hastily wiping her tears away with a finger, grateful there were no more behind them. "You know she's always hated that crook in the wall. Said it made it impossible to reach the shelves in the corner."

"Yeah!" Narue said, excitement taking over. "This time we can build the perfect rooms! I want a loft in mine! So I can hang crystal beads from the railing, like in that magazine Mommy loved to read." She'd often dreamily imagined the chiming and clicking of such a curtain since she saw the spread. And they would flash so brightly at sunrise and sunset. Papa had given her several small crystals, and Daddy had called them rainbow stuffed diamonds. She loved to turn them in the sunlight, throwing prisms against the wall or the rippling water of the pond in the backyard.

Relaxing completely, Sasuke eased himself and his sister back onto the bed, tucking her tight to his side, her head under his chin. "Alright, Roo. You win; you always win. I'll think about Big Sasuke in a better light. Okay?"

Narue squirmed in delight, making Sasuke lightly pinch her shoulder to settle her down. He was ticklish, by god, something only his family knew. "Let's get to sleep. It's late."

Narue yawned daintily, and snuggled closer. "Yeah. Night, Sauce…" She yawned again.

"Night, Roo."

Very shortly thereafter, the little girl was asleep, but not so Sasuke. Narue had been right. He'd foolishly allowed his wrath to close his ears, and he'd learned things from her that he should have already known.

He knew that Granma and Granpa talked about relocating to Japan. He knew why they couldn't stay. Mama and Daddy had killed all those men at the house. Which was, in little Sasuke's eyes, only right and proper. They'd hit Mama. And that other man pulled Roo's hair! They had scared her and made her cry. The scoundrels needed to die.

As for Japan, moving there would be interesting. But he'd not listened about a possible move to Konoha. Despite his high intelligence, and the fact that he too knew his Mama's stories, he thought Konoha was just another place in the world, like Japan. He didn't quite understand that it was a whole universe away. Still, it would be even more interesting.

He might become a ninja himself! He'd been quite fascinated with the history of them during visits to Japan, but the feudal era was long over, and though ninja still existed, they were an entirely different sort. From Mama's stories, he knew the ninja of Konoha were just like those in the old tales, only better. He didn't exactly know what chakra was, but it sounded wonderful, and he wondered if they went to Konoha, if he would have chakra too.

And Narue was right. Naruto and Sasuke were in love with each other still; it was easy to see. And yet, Mama still loved Daddy, and he knew she still did Papa too. And after all, if life was so much more colorful and beautiful with two fathers, what would it be like with three?

With that in mind, Sasuke was finally able to find sleep, and the moon shone down through the windows on the tangle of youthful limbs below, breathing deep and even, and eyes buttoned in slumber.


	14. Chapter 14

Untitled

As Above So Below

Chapter 14

It was late, and all was calm and quiet. The children were asleep, their little possum games having not gone undetected. Naruto leaned on the window, staring out at the same moon drenched yard that Narue had not too long before. So much change had befallen him and his, in so short a time. It was natural for the children to be tense and uncertain. Well, in Sasuke's case anyway. The ease with which Narue accepted Sasuke Uchiha was a little unsettling in and of itself.

_Sasuke…_

The once bright and night becalmed sight became blurred by crystal lenses of tears. God, why was his life so fucked up? Since the day he had been born, his life had been one fucking catastrophe after another; from having a demon forced into his newborn body to now, having all his hopes and dreams right in front of him, and unable to reach out and claim them.

Strong warm arms went around her waist, and she instantly knew them; Nathan. Despite everything, her heart was aching so fiercely, she welcomed the comfort, and leaned back into his arms.

"You're so sad, sweetheart," he whispered into her ear softly. "Don't be so sad. Don't cry, my love."

And she did love Nathan too, so very much that those sweet words made her eyes blur all the more. Why was life so unfair? To be so loved, and she was, and yet still find such unhappiness.

Nathan drew her unresisting into the other bedroom, and she went, eyes allowing the changing scenery to pass by in a formless shadow. Gentle hands dried her tears, and the ones that followed after.

"Shhh," the blonde man murmured so tenderly. "Stop crying, Naruto. I'm going to kiss you now, is that all right? Because I do love you. I love you so much, and I understand what you're feeling, right now."

Those words almost broke her heart. To be asked by her husband of almost five years if it was alright if he kissed her. And when he tipped her head back, and his warm mouth engulfed hers, tongue gently searching, her toes curled despite her heartache. And after the last three days of upheaval and chaos, she clung to him, allowing the kiss with a burning eagerness that rose up tendrils of shame in her heart.

The kiss ended moistly, only to be followed by another, longer, deeper, and even more stirring. She found herself reacting to it, the burning excitement rising in her loins, and knew if he touched her more, she would not resist. He was her husband; he'd been touching her body like this for over a decade, and he always, always, brought her pleasure.

"Thank you," he whispered again, leaning his brow against hers afterwards.

"Don't say that," she whispered, stricken. "You are my husband. I love you, Nathan. God, you don't have to ask for permission, and you don't have to thank me for what is your right."

"Yes I did," his fingers threaded lovingly through her short blonde hair. "I know what this boy means to you, what he is to you. And I'm sorry, god, Naruto, so sorry. You told us, all those years ago, and we never believed you. We thought… We made you… god, I'm sorry, baby." His blue eyes were as tearfilled as hers. "I'm so glad you forgave us, that you didn't hate us for what we did."

She gave a soft breathless laugh. "Oh Nathan…" In spite of everything that was happening right now, all the uncertainty and chaos and heartbreak, to hear those words was so very sweet, and went a long way to easing the pain in her heart. "I could never, ever hate you or Stefan." He finally understood what these years had meant to her, both the sweet and the bitter.

"Things are really bad for us all now, Naruto," Nathan went on softly, gently kissing her temple. "And you have a way home now. Your lover is here, and he wants you back. He wants to take you home."

Suddenly, Naruto knew what he was about to say, and strangely enough, it crushed her heart. Yeah, Sasuke was here, and yeah, he wanted to take her home with him. And god, she so wanted to go. But it just wasn't that simple anymore. Dammit, if only time ran the same here as it had in Konoha. Sasuke would have come for her less than two years into her exile, and she could have gone with him as freely and sweetly as a bird to its nest.

And here, Nathan was giving her permission to do all that her heart had yearned to do for so long, and it was killing her. God, it was Sasuke, and she wanted him so bad she could taste it. But… what about Nathan? With his gentle smiles and even gentler heart? He was so different inside than she was, though they were basically the same. He'd grown up with love and acceptance, not having to live with the curse of Kyuubi. And she had come to love him so much over the years. And Stefan! So very much like Sasuke, yet without the dark and scarred core deep inside. Stefan was all that Sasuke could have been, but for Itachi and Orochimaru. Those evil men had done things her Sasuke would never really recover from, and Stefan was the beautiful embodiement of what Sasuke would be if he could. And setting aside the two men that were all that she and Sasuke could have been, but weren't, there were the children. Little Sasuke with his dark Uchihan eyes, and his shadowy Uchihan soul, light and dark combined. Little Sasuke that loved his parents and his sister so much, and unlike his namesake, wasn't afraid to show it. And Narue! The sweetest little girl child to ever live. While Kyuubi might be different here, in Naruto's body, because of the lack of chakra, something of it had filtered into Naruto's youngest. Those two tiny whisker marks that adorned each round and rosy cheek. With her wild and woodsy bend of mind, and loving heart big enough for the whole world. Issue of Naruto's body. Her children. Her own, precious children.

She couldn't, wouldn't leave them behind, and she would never, ever take them from the men that fathered them, and loved them so much.

"I… can't…" Naruto whispered, closing her eyes in torment.

"Why not?" Nathan asked, nonplussed.

"Because I can't!" She cried out, tears flowing once more. "I can't leave you, leave the children. I love you all, don't you understand? Yes, I love Sasuke with every breath in my body, but I love you too! You, and Stefan, and little Sasuke and Narue. I can't… You don't understand what family means to me. I've never had one before, and now I do. And I love you all so much. I can't let go… I just can't… not even for him." The last was whispered in a stricken tone.

And to her surprise, Nathan gave a wry laugh, and gathered her close to his body. "Stefan is right, I am an idiot." He kissed her gently, hands stroking cheek and face to ease her suffering. "Sweetheart, no one's asking you to give anything up, certainly not me and Stefan, and definitely not the children. I didn't make myself clear. There's nothing here for us anymore but suffering. We... all of us… are going with you. To Konoha."

As for himself, Nathan felt a relief in his heart. Though he'd known Naruto would never leave her children, he wasn't so sure that he and Stefan held the same place in her heart, now that her Sasuke was here. To know that she loved them enough to stay, despite her yearning, despite all her carefully hoarded and often lost dreams, she would stay. To continue to love them.

Her generosity would always amaze him. As much as he loved Stefan, and god did he ever and would he always, he knew that if the dark man stood in Naruto's place, he would think nothing of taking his Nathan and his children for himself, and damning the other lover to oblivion. Stefan was just powerfully selfish that way.

There was a long and silent moment, seemingly endless, while Naruto digested this, her breathing suspended in amazement. And the wild joy that burst in her heart was tempered by doubt. For she too knew Stefan almost as well as Nathan did. She knew that it was entirely possible that Stefan would exile Sasuke, keeping his wife and husband and children to himself. There was enough of the Uchihan possessiveness and greed within him to make that an entirely too real possibility.

"What about Stefan?" She asked, not needing to elaborate.

Nathan chuckled. Despite his density, he knew what he was to his dark husband; he knew Stefan couldn't live without him any more than he could without Stefan. "Don't you worry about him. You just leave him to me."

Left unsaid was the words that once Nathan crossed over into Konoha, Stefan would follow. Especially in light of what was occurring in this world now. It really was the only reasonable choice, all things considered, and Stefan was nothing if not logical. He would come around. And until then, Nathan would distract him with his voice and body and heart. Deep down inside, dark and broody ravens were rather easy to manage, if bright and bubbly blondes knew how. And both Naruto and Nathan were definitely bright and bubbly, and knew their ravens down to the last molecules of their bodies and synapses of their minds.

Leaving these rather deep and ponderous ideas unconsciously thought in the simple depths of their brains, Naruto and Nathan shared companionably conspiratorial grins. And Naruto finally relaxed, and became rather dazed. It was suddenly too much to take in. Could it be that the catastrophe had finally ended? That he could have all that he ever wanted, and more? That he didn't have to give up the children, his husbands, his long lost lover, his homeland?

Could Naruto really have it all?

Nathan chuckled again at the rather befuddled look on her face. Naruto, like himself, was rather easy to read.

"I'm going to sleep with the kids tonight." He suddenly said with studied nonchalance. It was a little difficult, for he dearly loved to make love to Naruto, whether Stefan was there or not. It was always fun, always pleasureable, and so easy to make love to himself. Like both Naruto and Sasuke, he'd pondered just exactly how strange having sex with Naruto really was; his other self. The notion that it was really the most bizarre instances of masturbation did not pass him by, and had been bright highlights of amusement in an otherwise dark and frightening time.

But he'd had Naruto so very many times over the last ten years, and god willing, he would have her again. But tonight… tonight was for her, who'd always been so uncomplainingly generous, always so brightly thoughtful in matters of the heart. Now, it was her turn to shine, to love, to have and to hold all that she held dear. There would be other nights, far more interesting nights involving two blondes and two ravens. He would ponder those delicious thoughts tonight, when Naruto was finally experiencing all that a sexual encounter of love could be once more. Yes, other nights, other pleasures. Tonight was all for Naruto.

Naruto's blue eyes focused sharply on her blonde husband. She knew exactly where he was going with this.

"You… you don't mind?" She asked, rather breathlessly. God… tonight… To feel Sasuke's touch once more… it filled her mind entirely.

"How could I, koi, when you've done this same thing so many times for me and Stefan? Don't think I never noticed, because I did. And I've always been so very grateful for that. Now it's my turn to give this one thing to you. Because I love you, Naruto. And I always will."

"Nathan…" She choked out, tears flowing once more; this time in joy and gratitude instead of grief and pain. And she was in his arms, gripping his back fiercely, and she wept. And Nathan, knowing just exactly how cleansing such tears could be, let her, until she was done, and lay quietly in his arms. "I love you so much, Nathan."

"I know you do, sweetheart," Nathan said, with surprising comfort despite the situation. God, he wanted her badly. She was always so warm and sweet smelling. Just like Stefan always said he was. But there would be other nights, and tonight he could finally give back what had been given to him in spades. "Now, dry your pretty eyes. You don't want Sasuke to see you all puffy eyed and with a runny nose, now do you?"

Naruto laughed. "God, you are so romantic." She knuckled her eyes. She didn't want Sasuke to see her like this. Not tonight.

"I know," Nathan grinned. He kissed her thoroughly, then stood up, leaving her on the bed. Grabbing a nightshirt, so thoughtfully provided by the Sannins, he gave her a saucy wink. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

She laughed again, already bright eyed once more.

He paused at the door. "Oh, and by the way… I want details tomorrow morning, woman. All the juicy, nitty gritty details."

"You brat!" Naruto shrieked, heaving a pillow at him. And Nathan laughed, and escaped, leaving said soft missile to thump harmlessly against the closing door.

Sasuke was leaning on the railing of the porch, staring moodily into the night. He'd been filled with such excited high hopes after Nathan's nod earlier that night. But Naruto had been so anguished this evening, that he couldn't bear to continue his campaign to win her body and heart once more. So filled with grief and sadness that he found himself standing here now, wondering if the cigarettes that Shikamaru smoked ever brought the other shinobi real satisfaction. God, if only he had something to do right now, perhaps he would be able to escape this feeling of gloom and despair.

Dammit. He had everything he ever wanted within his grasp, but somehow, life always interfered. Naruto should be able to come to him freely, without all this encumberances that he once would have hated, but now would welcome, if only he could have his dobe back. Husbands, children, he didn't care anymore. He had to have Naruto. And he had to have him now. But… to look into those grief stricken blue eyes, see such misery, such hopeless despair. It was hard not to let his heart break.

Being so consumed with his bleak thoughts, he was completely unaware of Nathan's arrival.

"Well, hell. What, is it crying night?" The blonde observed dryly.

Sasuke hastily wiped a hand across his face before turning around. "Don't you know who you're talking to? Uchihas don't cry." He said gruffly, but without any real heat.

"Yeah, right. Come on, loverboy. Time to shine."

And before he realized what was happening, he was seized by the arm, and drug into the house. Just as he was contemplating putting up a struggle, so despondent was he, that he found himself before the bedroom door that did not contain children.

"Be good to her, Sasuke," Nathan said softly, eyes glittering strangely in the dark. "She's been hurting for so very long. I know you are the one to make it better. Naruto has a heart big enough for us all, even though you have the biggest portion. I'm sleeping with the kids tonight. Make it as good as possible for her."

And before Sasuke could even respond, Nathan gave him a brief and wistful smile, and vanished in the other room.

Sasuke took a deep breath. Though he knew inside that Nathan had meant this since his nod, it was difficult to realize that it was really happening. Naruto was on the other side of the door, waiting for him. Waiting for Sasuke. Waiting, and willing. He had to be. Nathan would not have turned the other blonde male over to him, if he were not.

He put his hand on the doorknob, and realized he was shaking.


	15. Chapter 15

As Above So Below

Chapter 15

Naruto would always look beautiful, no matter what body he wore. At least to Sasuke's eyes. Staring at her now, from the opened doorway, watching the moonlight glancing off the curve of her cheek, the delicate hollow of her throat, the golden flesh clearly seen though the pale almost sheer material of her nightgown.

Beautiful.

Oddly enough, it suddenly struck Sasuke, that for just a few rather glaring differences, Naruto really didn't look all that differently than he would as a man. He would always be short, if Nathan was anything to go by. And Nathan himself had an aura of effeminacy about him, in the dip of his waist, the curve and hollows of his throat, Adams apple very diminished. Of course, this effeminacy was offset by broad shoulders, a well packed chest, and muscular arms. All the things that Naruto's jutsu denied him. But though the face was slightly rounder, slightly more feminine, it was still Naruto. Sasuke would have been able to pick that face out of a crowd, even if he hadn't known Naruto was now female.

Sasuke couldn't breathe. He couldn't swallow past the lump in his throat. Even after three days, it still struck him right across the brain that finally, Naruto was here! Right here. And tonight, at long last, he could come to his dobe, as he'd dreamed of when he thought about finding his missing blonde, as he had when he'd finally found him, and suddenly realized that despite how he used to hate Naruto's sexy no jutsu, he didn't care. As long as he could have him.

Obscurely, he was grateful that Naruto had never grown out his hair. The wild and messy spikes were so comforting to see.

And though they had so much to say to each other, when Naruto looked over at him, with a shy, tremulous smile, the pink of his cheeks seen even in the wash of night, Sasuke found he couldn't say a word.

He moved over to Naruto, unable to take his eyes off her. She lifted her head slightly higher, as if seeking a kiss. And Sasuke was more than willing to give it to her.

One would think that this kiss, so long anticipated and yearned for, would have been ragingly empassioned. And it was desperate. But it was something wholly different from the wild passion they would have found under other circumstances.

Naruto gripped the back of his shirt in desperation, and there was salt in the kiss, which instead of detracting from the sweetness of it, seemed to intensify it all the more. The kiss ended, and was not immediately followed by another. Instead, Naruto laid her head on his shoulder, and drew in deep shuddering breaths.

"I'm sorry," she mewled in a strangled voice. "Please, forgive me."

"Naruto…"

"Sasuke, I can't imagine what it's been like for you. To come here, finally, to come for me, and find what I've done. God, if it had been me, I don't know what I would have done."

"Dobe…" The gentleness in Sasuke's voice was unmistakable.

"How can you not hate me for what I've done?" She went on in a very small voice. "I betrayed you. Not once, but over and over again, for years."

Realizing Naruto wasn't listening to him, he tangled his fingers in her hair, and drew her head back so he could look into her stricken face, blue eyes quenched in tears.

"That's enough," he said, with a hint of steel in his voice. Sure, he'd talked with Nathan about this. More than once. And it hurt, there was no denying it. It burned fiercely, like a badly cauterized wound. But in the past three days, he'd come to understand so much. "I know. I know you waited eight years before you finally gave in. Eight years, Naruto. As hard as the past few days has been for me, I only had to wait a year and a half."

"I thought this would be it forever, Sasuke," she cried out, almost wildly, "I swear. I thought I would never see you again, and that this would be all I ever had. And I had to have something. He… Stefan, he was here, and he was so much like you. It was hard, in the beginning, to know what I was doing, and that it wasn't with you. God, I was horrified. But I couldn't stop. He is so much like you. And Nathan, he was so generous, and willing to share. I couldn't help myself. I had to have something, anything, of you. Please, Sasuke, please…"

"Shhh, Naruto, I understand. Don't say anymore, please. We can talk later. Later. Right now, I just want to hold you, okay? It's been so long, and I was so afraid that you were dead. It's good to know you're not. That you're here, in my arms, right now."

And for a long time, that was all they did, both trembling, breathing in deep draughts of each other's scents, until the quivering stopped, or rather, became something else.

"Do you still like me? Even though I'm a girl now?" Naruto asked hesitantly. The shivering in her body now was not remorse, not guilt, but a growing, inescapable excitement. The racing heartbeat, the same. And she felt her body readying, in ways so different from when she was a boy, and yet, even just as different when she'd lain with Stefan and Nathan.

"Dobe, I'm afraid that I'd still like you, even if you were dead."

Naruto drew back, pert nose wrinkling, but laughter lurked in her luminous blue eyes. "Ew. Necrophilia? Sasuke, I'm shocked."

"Koi, even death wouldn't save you. So let's not find out, ne?" There was a soft rumble in Sasuke's chest, almost like a purr, and Naruto was surprised to realize it was amusement. It may have been eighteen years for the blond, and she knew she'd changed so much, and not just in form. But it was obvious that in the year and a half that Sasuke'd been separated from her, he'd changed too. He was warmer, somehow softer, and more willing to show it, when before he'd rather have died than admit, even to Naruto, that the blonde mattered more to him than anything else, alive or dead.

"And you're very much alive right now, dobe," Sasuke went on rather huskily, making Naruto squirm inside, "and thus, even more unsafe than ever. I'm going to take you, my little blonde moron. Oh yes. Right now."

Suddenly, without even noticing the transition, Naruto found herself flat on her back, a rather aroused and urgent young raven hovering over her body.

Despite the differences, Sasuke noticed that making love to Naruto as a woman was only slightly different than when he was a man. That skin, the color of coffee with lots and lots of cream, was just as silken inside the elbow, on the inner thigh, along the curve of the ankle. The fine hairs on those long and perfect legs were as soft as down, like before. And the taste, between those god lovely thighs, though very different, still carried a hint of the musk that would always remind the darker boy of his blond and bright lover.

The fingers that knotted in his dark hair were certainly as strong as when he was a boy, Sasuke though wryly, before the scent and taste and cries of pleasure began to drive him slowly insane. Surely, a girl was different than a boy, specially between the legs. But this was Naruto. And not matter what form, he would always be the most beloved, the most exciting, the most erotic partner Sasuke would ever have.

Breath was shaken as he crawled up that dark and moist body, his back furrowed by strong fingers, legs coming up to capture him so damn familiarly as he settled between his Dobe's legs.

He'd meant to tease him, his little blonde lover. But Naruto had other ideas. Sasuke managed to slide himself stickily across her cleft once, then a strong hand grasped him firmly, and with a yelp, Sasuke found himself sliding deep into a maddenly hot and wet cavern. Though not quite as tight as Naruto's anus, the blonde was still tight enough to make Sasuke freeze, throbbing wildly, anxiously afraid he was going to ruin everything by coming immediately.

Naruto, however, felt no compunctions. With a high hard arch and a wild shriek, she came, hot and sticky over Sasuke's deeply imbedded organ. It bubbled out, rich and thick, and stained the pristine bedding below.

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut so tight he saw spots dancing in the darkness, but he managed to hold on. And then, as Naruto finally ebbed below him, he opened his dark eyes, and grinned devilishly down. Oh yes. That was his blonde, alright. Hot and tight and always ready as a rocket for him.

God… Deep wet thrusts followed, mindbendingly pleasurable. And Naruto joined him, again and again, amazing in her endless stamina as always, as Sasuke was amazing in his discipline. But in the end, Sasuke could hold back no more, and with a deep and wrenching thrust, he buried himself to the hilt inside his beloved dobe, and tears coursed down his cheeks as he emptied himself.

_At last… at last…_

"Naruto…" he choked out finally, resting lightly upon her shivering body. "Naruto, I love you." And he cried. Full tears, soft sobs, to find himself, at last, beside the only one that would ever belong to him, the only person he would belong to.

His blonde, his dobe, his life, his everything.

And for the first time in over a year and a half, Sasuke was complete.

********************************

In the room with the sleeping children, Nathan lay in a puddle of moonshine, and listened to the sounds of muted passion in the other room. At first, he was insanely jealous. That was _his _wife in there, with a man that wasn't Stefan. But a moment later, that faded away. It was almost as though he was in the room with them. Every gasp, every cry from Naruto was almost as familiar as his own dark haired husband. And the older Sasuke… why, it was like listening to Stephan make love… right down to the almost shocked sounding choke on orgasm, and the emotion laden words of love just after. If he closed his eyes, it was like listening to Stefan and Naruto; if he closed his eyes, he could almost feel eager hands coasting over his body too. And listening to Naruto cry with such relief, such longing joy afterwards, his heart smote him.

Naruto, at long last, was complete too.

Nathan buried his head in his pillow, careful not to wake the children, and wept his own tears of mingled regret and happiness. And knew, without a doubt, that everything would change now.

**AN. **I hope I am live and not Memorex. I know its kinda rushed and stilted, but here's to hoping I've broken the back of my block at last!


	16. Chapter 16

As Above So Below

Chapter 16

The moon had long ago set, and dawn was just pinkening the skies to the east. Naruto, her head resting on Sasuke's lightly perspiring chest watched the sky growing brighter with every passing moment. Neither of them had slept at all during this long and pleasurable night. And for long moments, neither could speak, so full were their hearts.

Then Sasuke, his fingers carding luxuriously through the blonde's damp hair, simply said, "Tell me." And Naruto had no need for explanations.

When Sasuke staggered through the gate, he had at least known he was going somewhere else. Not so Naruto. There had been no preparation whatsoever when Naruto found himself in that shadowed and grimy alley so many years ago. Sick and barely conscious, he too had stumbled instinctively to some sort of safety before passing out. Clutching the orange jumpsuit he did not remember creating at some point in his fantastic voyage to this alien place, he sprawled face down in piles of disintegrating papers near the ever present dumpster. However, eighteen years earlier, the business had been a print shop, not a restaurant, so the stench was greatly reduced.

Coming too was even more of a nightmare. There were leering faces surrounding him, his jumpsuit unzipped, and foreign hands pawing at him. Screaming in rage and confusion, he unknowingly left the three badly injured in his furious reprisal and escape.

Unlike Sasuke, his emergence from the alley happened in full day. Stumbling, he held his jumpsuit together with a knotted fist, dirt streaked tears staining his face. Though he was unaware of the sight he presented, other around him were not: a sobbing young girl, filthy and shocked, holding a torn jumpsuit together screamed assault. He was surrounded by concerned citizens very quickly.

It took him more than a minute, but he finally pulled himself together and took stock of the situation.

First of all, unlike the men from the alley, these people seemed more concerned with helping him. Secondly, he was, for whatever reason, still female. And thirdly, though he cast wildly around in his mind for some familiar chakra residue, he could sense nothing at all.

Later on, Naruto would be ashamed to admit that when he realized he had no taijutsu's at his disposal, no chakra reserves, he was completely demoralized. Even the Ninetail's perverted mutterings would have been welcomed. But not a single wisp of alien consciousness could be sensed. The first few weeks slid by in a smear of nightmare. He hated his female body, and missed his sleek, streamlined masculinity as much as he did his chakra and ninjutsu. Pulling his sexy jutsu had given him endless amusement back in Konoha, but having to live this, day in day out, for weeks, it palled immediately. When he got back to his homeland, he would never use this particular jutsu ever again.

He was a stranger, in a strange land, trapped in a strange body. He missed the green fecundity of the leaf village, its green and growing forests, and the familiar faces of his comrades and loved ones. But most of all, he missed Sasuke with a growing pain like a scorched wound, that burned and throbbed more fiercely with every passing week.

More than once, Naruto found himself in desperate fisticuffs, vainly trying to prove and protect himself from the alien world around him. Days passed, then weeks, then months. One year melted into to and then into three, and his wonted cheerfulness was eroded away. The throb and ache in his heart grew worse and worse.

And then he saw Sasuke. He felt as if he was suffocating. At last! He'd finally come for him. Sasuke was going to save him once more, like he had so many times before. At last!

But it wasn't Sasuke. Oh, he was definitely a dead ringer. And his mannerisms were mostly the same. But the fierce rage so carefully banked behind black eyes was missing, as was the warped pain and love harbored in the scarred heart.

Stefan Medara was the epitome of what Sasuke Uchiha could have been, but for the ugliness the ninja world had thrown at him. To be sure, he was just as arrogant, just as willful and selfish and possessive.

But not for Naruto.

The boy turned girl stood shocked and crushed, devastatingly reminded of all he'd lost, his heart throbbing in pain and anguish, and then was slain to see a blonde mop suddenly appear at the dark raven's side, bright blue eyes sparkling with joy and love and happiness. Naruto watched that dark head bend down, saw that aquiline face smile slightly, watched those pale lips touch rosy ones, that were not his.

The flames of pain in Naruto's heart would burn and ache for many years.

That simple kiss led Naruto to run blindly away. Run and run and run. Sasuke! Where are you!

But if pain and agony drove Naruto away, loneliness and addiction brought him back, again and again, until one day, the dark haired doppleganger looked up, and stared deep into the blue eyes that he'd only seen in one person before. Looked into the gorgeous face that had until now only graced his beloved boyfriend.

Stefan Madara looked into Naruto's face and saw, if not Nathan, than his twin. The love of his life, with breasts and long slim legs, and burning bright hair. But for the faint softening of Nathan Arashi's features, and the three scars adorning each cheek, it could have been his childhood sweetheart.

Those dark and beloved eyes drilled into Naruto's… without a shred of love, but a growing suspicion.

And again, Naruto ran, to his small hidey hole near the accursed alley that was his exile. There to weep hopelessly with another onslaught of female hormones from which there was no escape.

In Konoha, Naruto had never remained in his female form long enough to know what it was really like to be a woman. He'd always been able to return to the form he'd been born in. Not so now. He'd even had to learn to deal with menstruation. It was a very good thing that working missions with Sakura had given him unspoken lessons in lunar tides, or he might have been terrified by the monthly flows of frightening amounts of blood from his treacherous body. After three years Naruto was no more reconciled to being a woman than he was to being exiled from all he knew and loved.

If Stefan Madara was not Sasuke Uchiha, he had enough of the Konohan's personality to not let something as enormous as an unknown woman walking around in Nathan's body slide. Even as Naruto lay in his nest of old rags and newspaper deep in the heart of that alley and wept hopelessly for the raven of his own, Stefan was putting into motion that which would bring to him his lover's female counterpart. It was a conundrum that he had to solve.

But this mysterious woman was to prove more elusive than a will-o-wisp. Naruto may have been misplaced in time and space, and might have lost a great deal of his power, he was still a ninja, born and bred. After seeing the eyes of his lover look into his without love or real recognition, Naruto stayed away for several days. But Stefan Madara was a siren call he could not resist. When he sallied ever closer for a peek at which smote him to his core but was like an addiction he could not satisfy, this world's Sasuke was waiting for him.

Where Sasuke would have thrown a woman down, and perhaps pummeled her into submission, such an action was anathema for most of his strange place. Stefan Madara carefully captured and held onto this impossibly familiar female.

Naruto went stiff as a board in Stefan's arms. Both repelled and struck to be so close to this familiar warmth and body and scent. He could no more strike Stefan down in cold blood than he could Sasuke. So he stood there, caught in the arms of a man that was the image of all he could think and dream about, as silent tears coursed down his face.

Nathan, looking over his lover's shoulder was powerfully intrigued to see his own face on a woman's body, and a stranger one at that. Finding himself oddly in tune with this mysterious woman who was in reality himself, he stepped in to mend the breech. His gentle kindness eased Naruto's wounded heart.

Introductions were made as soon as Stefan knew she would not flee again. Both men pondered the possibility of Naruto being some sort of long lost relative. But if so, it was so far back in Nathan's line as to make no never mind, despite the uncanny resemblance. One meeting became two, then more, as Naruto could no more stay away from Stefan than he could Sasuke. And his heart yearned and bled more, but he couldn't stay away.

When the boys learned Naruto was homeless, suddenly the transplant found himself ensconced in the spare room of their apartment, suddenly in the thick of an ever widening family. It was not lost on Naruto, how his and Nathan's origins were so similar. He even was able to look in Philip and Marilyn Madara's faces and smile faintly to know that at least here, this Stefan hadn't been stricken to his heart's blood by loss.

Days again bled into weeks and into months, and Naruto found himself slipping into a now familiar routine. Still he would range far and wide in the city, looking, hoping, dreaming of finding his own Sasuke someday. But those little forays, so disturbing to the men now in his life, became fewer and fewer as months blurred into years. When the Sasuke in her mind's eye began to age and mature as the Stefan did before her.

Naruto looked into her mirror, yea, even the one that years and years later she would break, and ran her fingers down her slim belly, and toyed with the idea of giving something to this Stefan she never thought she would be able to give Sasuke. Fingers stilled suddenly. _She? Her?_ When did Naruto start thinking of himself as a girl? The fractures in his heart turned into well defined cracks. Naruto began thinking of himself as a female around the same time he realized that Sasuke was lost to him… forever. When he knew there would be no more green doors opening back to home… When she knew that this, here and now, would be her life, until she died. After eight yeas of his exile, she finally realized…this would be all she ever had of what she once loved so dearly. This…

After a very long and unusually quiet session of mourning that which was now dead to her, she approached Stefan, and shyly offered her womb to the only men in her life now. She would never be able to give Sasuke a child, but maybe she could make this life bearable by giving one to Stefan.

And then, Nathan held her gently, to her everlasting surprise, when Stefan bent down and kissed her for the first time. And the future became the present, with all its pain and grief and doubt along with all its pleasure and joy and confidence. Naruto, now a woman at heart as well as body, spread her wings, and flew upon this world's turbulence and updrafts.

Her future with these men would be put to the test again and again, but in true Naruto fashion, she met it with arms spread wide.

And then came Sasuke Uchiha, the boy of her heart, the dream of her nights and the castles in her clouds. Not the mature and seasoned man that was her first husband, but the boy of her past. And her world came crashing down once more.

Sasuke Uchiha, the boy she'd never thought he'd find again, was in her arms, loving him, and she grew uncertain of her future, and upon realizing Sasuke meant to take Naruto and all that he held dear back to Konoha… _Konoha! …_he had to wonder what future would bring. Once she'd been a man in a woman's body. Would he find himself paradoxically now a woman in a man's body? Then he realized it didn't matter. He would be home! With Sasuke! At last!

**AN**: I know its been years, and for that I am sorry. Believe it or not, I have not been able to write much of anything in all this time. But I am trying once more, and I hope you bear with me, and wish me luck and hope and pray that I can write again once more,

I know this is short, and probably as stilted as the last chapter, but I am trying.


	17. Chapter 17

As Above So Below  
Chapter 17

When they arrived in the Konohan council chamber, where the portal was, they were met with organized chaos. Covert reconnaissance had discovered that the alley and the street it led to were crawling with that world's operatives. Though they would be no match for true shinobi, with or without chakra, there was to be as little impact on Stephan's world as possible.

Most were agreed upon with this and pondered what to do. Should they open another portal somewhere else? Would that lead to a new distortion of time? Did they dare risk it?

Green eyes blackened not by artifice burned with fury. How dare they even contemplate this? Why were they cowering like sheep? Why were they not striding bright and blazing into this accursed world?

Those same eyes drilled belligerently into Stefan's inky ones, as if daring him to speak up for his world.

Stefan had no intentions of rising to this scarlet-headed monarch's bait. His only drive was to get back home as quickly as possible and find his wounded husband and stricken family. Six days had already passed. God only knew what had happened, especially in light of the uniformed policemen standing at the mouth of the alley in their brief peek. That did not bode well. The last time he was in that alley, almost a week ago, earth time, his husband had been shot. The crime scene tape stretched from one side of the mouth of the alley to the other chilled Stefan to the depths of his heart.

Suppose…

No! He would not, could not, suppose such a thing.

He was more than willing to fly though the green door, run down the alley and mow down any and all that stood between him and what he had to have.

His family!

"Let's go."

The simple phrase uttered with such confidence broke the staring contest between the two men. Both swung to glare at Shikamaru, who leaned upon the wall, one foot braced against the it, knee bent, as he examined the sheen of his lighter.

"Naruto was lost to this world several miles from here. I don't think it matters where we open the gate. Sasuke went in from the medical complex, which leads to the same alley as this gate. I say go. Now. Every second we delay, hours pass there. Let's go."

Everyone, save Chouji, looked shocked at the calm tone but urgent words of the usually lazy ninja. No one, save Chouji, really understood his friend, even if he did not have all the secrets of Nara's heart. Naruto had been their playmate, all those years ago, and their comrade in arms since then. He was in danger now, according to Stefan. Naruto had been gone long enough. It was time to bring him home again.

Chouji nodded firmly, stepping to Shikamaru's side.

Seeing as the four of them were in agreement, and realizing there was no help for it, Kakashi, eye revealed and spinning bloodily in his face, flowed through the long string of gestures required to open this gate once more.

Stefan had had only a second to watch the red head beside him, whose face was washed in unearthly light as the portal opened once more, and then he was running down the alley, bricks passing in a blur, to burst through the yellow streaming tape, and the stunned and astonished policemen.

Nathan, I'm coming!

Words could not encompass Stefan's feelings, when he, Shikamaru, and the ubiquitous Gaara, who dogged his every step, crouched in the branches of a huge tree, and surveyed the blackened and burnt out shell of what had been his home.

Wood splintered under his hand as his fingers dug unthinkingly into the bark. Flaking down below in slivers. Shikamaru calmly laid his own over it, lest the falling bits of tree alert the ever preset police who milled about the MAU compound, sifting though the timbers and ashes of the once spacious home.

Stefan was so shocked, so horrified by what he beheld that for many long seconds, he could not think.

Sai, looking very strange indeed without his midriff bared, now adorned in clothing appropriate to this place and time, had sauntered out to approach from the road.

Neji, his white, blind looking eyes hidden behind dark and mirrored sunglasses, moved swiftly and unobtrusively through the streets, made familiar by his twelve day stay less than a week before, Konoha time. He looked at newspaper kiosks, slipping one sleekly out when a dapper businesswoman purchased one herself, and reading it swiftly as he walked away.

It was difficult to lead Stefan away from his lofty perch over his property. Rage jostled alongside his fear and concern for his family, his dread for his husband. Wrath that he was barred from his own property, anger that he could not just reach out and find his family, and a grim knowledge that his world had now turned against him, and his strongest allies were strangers from an alien land.

It was becoming painfully obvious that this land could no longer his home, his sanctuary. He knew that once he found his family, he would have to take them far away from here, to somewhere safe, where the bigotry and inflexibility would not threaten his family ever again.

Perhaps Japan…

It was Gaara's harshly whispered threats that broke Stefan's unblinking gaze upon the acrid scented ruins.

It was not fear of the redhead that broke the spell, and not even anger at the cold and calculating words, but a realization that the Kazekage was right. His loved ones needed him. He shook the cobwebs from his brain and almost nimbly followed the others to a clearing not far from the property line, where they had left the others.

The news that Sai and Neji brought were grim: Naruto and the children missing, Nathan and himself being hunted for murder, the death and mayhem that had occurred at his own home six days ago. But through it all he felt a thread of hope. No other body but Francis Middlewaithe's had been found in the alley. Though the body count had been high at the compound, Naruto, Narue and little Sasuke were not among them, nor was any body of a possible sibling, the older Sasuke from Konoha.

From what he had learned in Konoha, he had an inkling of gratitude to know it was Sasuke Uchiha that had been with Nathan when he'd been shot. An inkling with a wide ribbon of distrust. Sasuke was himself, as he now knew Naruto to be of Nathan. And knowing what he did of himself, he did not trust Sasuke one iota with Naruto, the love of his cold, Uchihan life, and certainly much less with his own bundle of blond sunshine, Nathan.

Grateful or not, Sasuke Uchiha would die, if he laid one finger on what was his!

An hour later, they had checked out the cow byre. It was almost impossible to discern anything there, since the police had already gone over it with a fine tooth comb. The bandages made from Sasuke's shirt, bloody and torn, were now in the possession of the police department, as was the old KFC chicken bucket. Strange footprints crisscrossed, leaving nothing of the previous occupants behind. But Stefan felt a powerful knowledge that his family had been there. He could not explain it.

And was somehow unsurprised to find the Konohans accepted his certainty with equanimity.

Which led Stefan to thinking: where could they go where he could have all that he loved and needed and wanted. Close to hear heart. Perhaps Japan was not quite far enough away. Perhaps…

After all, Stefan was nothing, if not a logical man.

Two hours later, Sai, this time garbed in black slacks, a white button down shirt, and a tie, walked up the drive to the Sannin's house, an enormous bag filled with purloined inconsequential books and pamphlets slung over his shoulder. He gave a cheeky wave to the cops sitting in the car: cops that averted their eyes the moment Sai waved at them, having just spoken with them.

Huh, what do you know, Stefan Madara was right. People were afraid of evangelists.

Not that Sai even had the slightest inkling of what an Evangelist might be. He knew it had something to do with religion, which he had always avoided his entire life. But still. It was amusing. The cops had been hard and suspicious when he first walked up, but the moment he started waving a black leather bound book around, and speaking of the kingdom of heaven being at hand, their eyes had glazed over and they could not get rid of him fast enough, even if it meant sending him up to the rich folk in the majestic house on top of the hill. Let the Sannins deal with the nutcase. Sai had read this all in their eyes.

Thus with a Mona Lisa like smile, Sai knocked on the door of the Sannin's house. And that small secretive smile blazed bright and blinding when Suzanne opened the door, heard a phrase that made the blood race in her veins, and ignored the rambling of heavenly kingdoms as she allowed the 'Evangelist' inside her home.

Stefan had surfaced!

While Sai glanced curiously around at the few packed boxes and sheets that had been draped over most of the furniture, he realized they had arrived not a moment too soon. The Sannins were going somewhere, and meant not to come back for a long time.

Again, Sai had to marvel and the cold cunning and craftiness that seemed inherent in any world's Sasuke. Stefan hit everything right on the head of the nail, just as Sasuke was wont to. And like Nathan before him, though he kept his words light and unfettered, he felt the resistance both had for the possibility that Naruto had indeed come form another world. Very well, let them think they were going to Japan. Once in Konoha, they would see the error of these thoughts.

Watching the relief dawn on their faces at his carefully worded news, Sai wondered how even Uchihan ingenuity would bring this couple, as well as the others who would be coming, back to that alley, now probably crawling with more cops than ever before. Back to the alley, and home.

He could hardly wait to see how Stefan or Sasuke could pull this off.

Sai was an efficient man, and less than fifteen minutes later, he was ready to go, the pamphlets that once bulged his bag now in the tinderbox by the fireplace. More precious items had taken their place. Head held high, he bid a hearty farewell to the Sannins at the door, in plain view, and begged them to reconsider. Their very souls were at stake!

Then he whistled nonchalantly as he strolled back down the hill, waving cheerfully to the policemen, who merely shook their heads when he was no longer in sight. Evangelists.

Little did they realize, once around the corner, his face lost its look of animation, and he nodded to Chouji and Shikamaru, who were now in earth gear. Ten very surreal minutes passed, while the three stood there, waiting. The rest had gone ahead with Sai, and the Sannin's direction, taking Stefan, with his damnably well-known face with them.

Shikamaru, having finished one cigarette, took out another, ripping off the filter. Then pinching the ends, he rolled them tight, making his machine milled cigarette look remarkably home rolled. Lighting it, he puffed meditatively on it as he strolled around the corner, and into the policemen's line of sight.

The policemen were bored. So much excitement over the last few days, with fires, shootings and the like, all centered on a rich and high profile family. And here they were, stuck in an unmarked car, watching the front gates of the Sannins' property. Surely they were not alone, there were other strategically placed detectives watching the woods in the back, but still… It had been three days, and nothing more exciting than the Sannins having a couple of friends over for dinner the afternoon before. Oh, and an evangelist. One of them rolled his eyes.

Thus, when a tall skinny man came into view, smoking a cigarette, they watched him idly, before turning theirs back to the gates they were guarding.

"What do you mean, you don't have my money!" The words were growled in a low but penetrating voice.

A shorter and much fatter man had joined the skinny man.

"You were supposed to have the money for me today! I am telling you, Marcus, I wont stand for this!" With every word the fat man was getting more and more angry.

They could not hear Marcus' response to his aggressor, and one of the detectives reached for the mike of his radio, as the skinny man appeared to try to placate his irate companion.

"No! Enough of your excuses! I've had enough!" And a gun flashed into view.

Marcus looked dismayed and ducked, as the fat man fired, the bullet whizzing harmlessly over his head. More wild shots were fired, as Marcus ran away, followed by the heavyset man.

"We have shots fired at 5055 Sunset Circle, send backup!" And the detective slammed the radio back down as both men leapt from the unmarked sedan, and sped down the street after the two, who were no longer in sight. The sound of the gun sounded sharply in the air, and then fell silent.

When the cops returned, sweaty and disheveled a few minutes later, speaking into the mike on one shoulder, they found the detectives from the back at the drive.

"What the hell are you doing out here? Get back in position!" The other detectives looked at the house on the hill, in time to see a curtain flutter on the second floor, then went back to their posts.

"Fuckers got away," the first two said to the one that lingered. "I am still requesting backup, just in case."

It took them quite a while to realize that the curtain that fluttered every few moments was from a slow oscillating fan. By that time, backup had arrived, only to find that the Sannins were long gone.

The policemen were no longer bored.


End file.
